Higher-end department stores in Greenville

[PuppiesandKittens]

Does anyone foresee a higher-end department store chain coming to Greenville anytime in the near future?  Greenville couldn't support a Saks Fifth Avenue, but it had Ivey's and Parisian, both of which were certainly higher-price-point chains.

Von Maur: It's a Midwestern chain that expanded to Atlanta.  When the Sears at Haywood closes, maybe this could take the spot?  (Or has the Sears already been sold to Seritage, which would typically close the store and retenant it with smaller tenants)?

Saks Off Fifth and Neiman Marcus Last Call: Greenville finally has a Nordstrom Rack, but the off-price branches of other chains haven't arrived yet, oddly enough.  Any interest shown by these off-price chains?

Nordstrom Local (https://shop.nordstrom.com/content/nordstrom-local): Nordstrom is opening small locations in the West Coast- apparently you can pick up online orders, try them on and have them altered.  I could see something like this totally transforming the department store industry and allowing higher-end chains to open tiny locations in places where they have some online sales without a full-line store nearby.  I would think that a Nordstrom Local in Greenville (and lots of other smaller markets) would do fine, since stores in Atlanta and Charlotte could ship merchandise, and surely people in Greenville already shop in them.

Just curious as to others' thoughts.  I know that the department store industry generally is suffering, but some chains are expanding when others withdraw (e.g., Dillard's, Nordstrom and others are all opening stores).

 

[ausrutherford]

Think Amazon has largely suck these. 

[Exile]

I don't know--Birmingham has a Saks, and though Birmingham proper is a good bit bigger than Greenville, GSA is now bigger than greater Birmingham (which I think includes Tuscaloosa). I'm not sure Greenville couldn't support one, or something similar.

I agree that the Sears space is too large--there's no way they'd want that much square footage, even if they were interested in opening a store here. A single floor might make sense, so the Seritage thing might work (I'm not familiar with Seritage). But that reminds me of what Meyers Arnold did when Haywood Mall opened: when HM opened and for a number of years thereafter, there was no food court.  Meyers Arnold had a very large mall store where the food court now is, minus an entrance hallway that led from the current exterior food court doors, but plus the stores on the main mall-way: Haagen-Dazs, Pretzel place, etc.

What about something like that, either in HM or in an outdoor retail center? Would that work?

[gman430]

Nordstrom would tear down Sears and rebuild on site. They never move into an existing building.