Apparently, those grand plans have been downsized greatly, much to the dismay of myself. According to the Chicago Tribune, Skokie (the village where Old Orchard is based) just approved a much smaller plan:

Skokie OKs mall changes
March 9, 2006
Tribune staff, wire reports

The Skokie Village Board has approved changes to the Old Orchard shopping center that are far less ambitious than the plans floated last year by the mall's Australian owner, Westfield Group. As part of a redevelopment of the former Saks Fifth Avenue store, the existing 104,000-square-foot structure would be replaced with a 64,000-square-foot building for smaller specialty stores and restaurants, according to a village report released this week. The plans would affect Steve & Barry's University Sportswear, which took over the Saks store last year. A representative of the inexpensive apparel retailer, which sells jeans, jackets and licensed college goods, declined to comment. Construction is expected to begin this summer. In June Westfield considered adding as much as 300,000 square feet of space to the well-known center. A representative could not be reached for comment.

Field's to become Macy's in Sept.
February 22, 2006
By Sandra Guy, Business Reporter

Marshall Field's will be officially renamed Macy's the weekend of Sept. 9-10, Field's parent company Federated Department Stores announced Tuesday -- the same day it reported better-than-expected holiday profits.

CEO Terry Lundgren also introduced a new marketing chief he hopes will make the Macy's name as well-known as Pepsi.

Lundgren said he wants to advertise Macy's in new ways so it becomes a national icon rather than a traditional department store.

To do so, Cincinnati-based Federated has hired Anne MacDonald, 50, a former top marketing officer at Citibank and Pizza Hut, as Macy's chief marketing officer and president of Macy's corporate marketing division.

MacDonald, most recently at Citibank, has built her career at consumer products companies such as AT&T, Citicorp and Procter & Gamble.

MacDonald, who will start her new job in late March, will succeed Peter Sachse, 48, who will take a new role as chairman and CEO of Macy's online site, www.Macys.com.

Macy's Web site is expected to grow in sales volume and functionality because Federated is pumping $130 million into its online and mail-order business in the next two years to boost its infrastructure and service capabilities.

MacDonald will be in charge of the TV ad campaign and other efforts to promote the company's growth as a national retailer, and as it prepares to change the name of some 400 stores it purchased to Macy's.

The Macy's nameplate will be affixed in phases to Marshall Field's and the other former May Department stores, but the nameplates will be covered with a banner until the Sept. 9-10 grand unveiling, a Federated spokesman said.

Profits at Federated during the important holiday season jumped 59 percent to $699 million, or $2.52 a share, on an 87 percent surge in sales to $9.57 billion.

Federated, which also owns Bloomingdale's, bought May Department Stores for $11.5 billion on Aug. 30.

It promoted deep discounts at the May Department Stores during the holidays to clear the racks so Federated can install its own brands, decor and private-label fashions.

Excluding merger costs and inventory adjustments to reflect clearance sales, Federated's earnings from continuing operations totaled $2.74 a share, easily topping analysts' consensus estimate of $2.62 a share.

Net income was bolstered by a tax settlement, a tight rein on costs and inventory and better-than-expected sales and profit margins at May Department Stores, including Marshall Field's, L.S. Ayres, Hecht's, Foley's, Famous Barr and five other regional department-store chains.

Sales at all of the May Department Stores unit, including Marshall Field's, inched up 0.1 percent, a far better result than Federated's earlier forecast of a sales decline of 5 to 7 percent.

Sales at Federated stores open at least a year -- a key gauge of a retailer's health -- were up 1.1 percent.

Lundgren has said 2006 will be a transition year with costs for store closings, the addition of 400 Macy's nameplates nationwide, and continued efforts to improve disappointing sales at the home-furnishings stores. Federated expects its same-store sales in 2006 to increase 2 to 3 percent, and to have full-year earnings of $3.45 to $3.70 per share.

Federated said it has buyers interested in the Lord & Taylor department-store chain and May's bridal group of stores, both of which it is selling. It declined to reveal the potential buyers' names, but said the sales should be completed this year.

The author has published two entries on Old Orchard. The first features a historical shot of Marshall Field's (soon to be Macy's -- blah). The second image depicts what I believe is now the intersection of The Park and The Garden looking north. The historical shot features a lot more trees!

I'm guessing that the Steve & Barry's situation is a short-term lease and if Lord & Taylor gets sold/closed, Westfield will want to get their hands on that smaller building as well, clearing more hurdles for their expansion ideas. The Chicago Sun-Times has the full story on the Lord & Taylor ownership situation:

Federated to sell Lord & Taylor
January 13, 2006
by Sandra Guy, Business Reporter

Lord & Taylor is up for sale, and its stores may end up as new locations for an expanded Saks Fifth Avenue or another department store, analysts speculated Thursday.

Lord & Taylor's owner, Federated Department Stores, announced Thursday it will sell the 55-store chain so it can focus on its Macy's and Bloomingdale's department stores. The news ended rumors that had circulated for a year-and-a-half that Federated would dispense with the modernized but floundering Lord & Taylor, which has five Chicago area stores.

The Lord & Taylor chain garnered $1.57 billion in sales in 2004, and analysts immediately speculated that it could sell for $745 million after taxes.

The most likely buyers would be private-equity companies flush with cash. Private-equity companies have recently gobbled up Neiman Marcus Group and Toys R Us in separate deals.

Deborah Weinswig of Citigroup Smith Barney speculated that a private-equity buyer could buy Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor, and rename all of the stores Saks Fifth Avenue.

Another analyst who asked not to be named said a smarter pairing would be Lord & Taylor with the upscale Parisian chain of 40 department stores in the South. Parisian is being sold by Saks.

Federated bought the New York-based Lord & Taylor chain as part of its stunning $11.9 billion takeover of the May Department Stores, including Marshall Field's and L.S. Ayres. The consolidation of the country's top two department-store chains, announced a year ago, took effect Aug. 30.

May Department Stores had tried to turn around the Lord & Taylor chain by introducing more fashionable merchandise and closing 32 stores that represented 38 percent of Lord & Taylor's store base but only 19 percent of the chain's total sales.

Federated expects to sell Lord & Taylor this year. Federated CEO Terry Lundgren, the man responsible for renaming Marshall Field's as Macy's, said that although Lord & Taylor didn't fit Federated's focus, it has "a great name, many outstanding locations, an experienced management team and a strong customer following."

Local shoppers have lost two Saks Fifth Avenue stores in the last three years, and could see more closings of Lord & Taylor stores.

After Saks announced last May it would close its Saks Fifth Avenue store at Old Orchard Shopping Center in Skokie, the shopping center proposed tearing down the Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue stores to build an open-air shopping area filled with specialty retailers.

Two years ago, Saks closed its Saks Fifth Avenue store at Oakbrook Center mall in the western suburbs. It was replaced by a Bloomingdale's Home Store.

A tradition at Old Orchard is to drain the large fountain located in Fountain Court (yeah, that's how it got its name) and put a large Christmas tree on that location, complete with little enclosed windows containing animated stuffed animals. It's not as cool as going downtown to see the State Street Christmas windows, but it's something.

The windows at the base of the tree feature animated teddy bears doing stuff with musical instruments. It's supposed to come off as cute, but frankly the display is rather cold and lifeless. Probably because their is no storyline, music, or purpose... and sometimes the mechanics are broken. But other than that, it's not too bad! :)

Then again, I think I'd rather tolerate this weak display than have to put up with Marshall Field's becoming crapola-Macy's.

The description from the website is as follows:

Towering deli sandwiches, gigantic salads and entree specialties plus decadent fresh-baked breads and award-winning desserts have been signature items of family-owned Max's Restaurants since 1978 with the opening of Max's Son in Daly City. Dennis Berkowitz, owner of Max's, named the restaurant in honor of his father. Max's sang a new tune in 1982 with the opening of Max's Opera Cafe in San Francisco, where the customer is entertained by servers singing opera and show tunes. Max's Diner, opening in 1985, took us back to the '50's and '60's "counter culture". Twenty-five years later, Max's uncompromising standards protecting the customer's right to a great meal have remained and fans continue to keep Max's Restaurants cooking round-the-clock.

Before Saks did say good-bye, there were various levels of Store Closing sales. Amy and I dropped by many of these to check in on the progress of clearing out the large Saks space. The Old Orchard location had 3 levels (main, upper, and basement). Here are some photos we took during those final days.

Inside the store, many of the fixtures were for sale, though it seemed like quite a few were earmarked for other Saks locations.

Eventually, all mention of Saks would be removed from the mall. This electronic sign mounted on the Professional Building was quickly changed after the Saks closing to remove the name of the store (and they probably fixed the burned out lightbulbs as well).

Signage was removed from the main Saks building as well, resulting in a very empty, barren spot. Much like everything at that end of Old Orchard.

You may remember that back in June, word was leaked that Westfield was considering adding a lifestyle center element to Old Orchard. According to the plans made public, this would involve the demolition of both the Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue anchor buildings. I haven't heard anything new since that news came out, but we did wonder if Westfield would leave the Saks building vacant or try to find a new tenant. That question was answered in October when the Chicago Tribune reported on a tenant to fill the space:

Gone are the days when shopping malls relied solely on department stores as anchor tenants.

At Westfield Old Orchard in Skokie, a $10-or-less clothing retailer is moving into a vacated Saks store, an example of how even upscale malls in well-heeled areas are rethinking the notion of who should occupy the biggest spaces.

Steve & Barry's University Sportswear, which sells inexpensive men's, women's and children's clothes including jeans, jackets and licensed college goods, will occupy all three floors of the 105,000-square-foot space vacated by Saks in July. It is expected to open next month.

The privately held Port Washington, N.Y., firm typically operates stores ranging from 20,000 to 150,000 square feet in less prestigious malls.

"This is our first Class A mall," Steve & Barry's spokesman Rick Gomes said.

"They came to us because we're a company who can put something in quickly," he said of the retailer's relationship with mall owner Westfield Group.

At Old Orchard, Steve & Barry's joins such traditional mall stalwarts as Marshall Field's, Lord & Taylor, Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom. Spaces for those retailers range from just under 200,000 square feet to 400,000 square feet.

As retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. open hundreds of free-standing stores a year, malls are trying new ways to remain relevant to consumers, particularly younger ones, and are looking beyond tried-and-true conventional department stores as key tenants.

"We thought Steve & Barry's would be a great addition and bring a different clientele," said Thomas Sikoral, Westfield Old Orchard general manager.

In May, Steve & Barry's was named in an International Council of Shopping Centers survey as one of retailing's five hottest merchants--along with Apple Computer Inc., Coach Inc., Williams Sonoma Inc. and White House Black Market, a subsidiary of Chico's FAS. Inc.

In a May interview, Steve & Barry's co-founder and co-Chief Executive Barry Prevor, said he is interested in any mall anchor spots that might open up as a result of industry consolidation, which recently has touched such retailers as Sears, Macy's and Marshall Field's.

Mall developers, he noted, have become more open-minded about what constitutes an anchor tenant in light of mergers that are making department stores more homogeneous.

"If a mall has four department store anchor spots, and one goes vacant, then years ago mall management would have thought, `Get another department store.' Now, they say, `We have three department stores selling the same brands at the same prices. What would be the point of bringing in an identical department store?'" Prevor told the Tribune.

"So they look for alternative uses. This has been one of the great drivers behind our growth," he said.

Steve & Barry's has 87 stores in 27 states and plans to open another 40 stores by year-end.

In June 2004, it opened one in Westfield Chicago Ridge mall in Chicago Ridge, followed in October 2004 by a location in North Riverside Park Mall in North Riverside.

The retailer has plans to open more stores across the area, including outlets at Westfield Fox Valley in Aurora, Randhurst Mall in Mt. Prospect, Westfield Louis Joliet in Joliet, University Mall in Carbondale and in Springhill Mall in West Dundee.Source: Chicago TribuneSteve and Barry's University Sportswear was founded in 1985, and while it seems like a good short-term fit for Old Orchard, my money is that they have a short-term lease with Westfield so that the lifestyle center plans would not be harmed.

Amy and I checked out the new store shortly after they opened. While the merchandise was somewhat appealing (mainly for price), the store itself looked like the new tenants had done nothing to remodel the space. Thus indicating that this is probably not a long-term solution for Old Orchard. But we'll see.

The addition of Steve & Barry's will help The Promenade section of Old Orchard not seem so dead, but I'm not quite sure that it fits the image that the mall is trying to portray. Then again, Westfield has already done a pretty good job making the mall more crappy, so anything goes these days.

What about the name?
November 1, 2005
BY SANDRA GUY

Chicagoans, still reeling from Federated Department Stores' impending change of Marshall Field's name to Macy's, can breathe easy about the future of Carson Pirie Scott & Co.'s name.

Carson's will remain Carson's, Bon-Ton CEO and President Bud Bergren told the Sun-Times.

"We think Carson's is a very good franchise, and has a lot of equity," Bergren said.

He added that he thinks it's "a shame" that Marshall Field's will become Macy's in 2006.

Saks sells Carson Pirie Scott to Bon-Ton Stores
October 31, 2005
Reuters

The Bon-Ton Stores Inc. said on Monday it agreed to buy 142 stores from Saks Inc. for $1.1 billion in cash, making it one of the largest regional department store retailers in the United States.

The deal involves 142 Saks department stores that operate under the Bergner's, Boston Store, Carson Pirie Scott, Herberger's and Younkers monikers. The purchase will more than double the size of Bon-Ton, which currently has 139 department stores in the Northeast and Midwest.

Bon-Ton shares jumped about 27 percent to $21.19 on Nasdaq on news it clinched the deal for a lower price than the $1.5 billion Saks had originally demanded, traders said.

"The transaction solidifies and strengthens our position in the Midwest and extends our footprint into the Great Plains states," he said.

Saks' Northern Department Store group generated $2.2 billion in sales last year or about one-third of the retailer's total sales. In April, Saks sold its Proffitt's and McRae's chains to Belk Inc. for $622 million.

Luxury retailers have reported strong results in recent quarters as a booming housing market helps to lift spending among high-income consumers. But Saks largely missed out on the bonanza amid a probe into accounting that led to the ouster of three top executives.

Saks restated last year's results after the internal investigation found that the retailer had improperly collected discounts from vendors known as "markdown allowances."

Once the Northern Department Store unit is sold, Saks will be left operating its main, luxury department store chains Saks Fifth Avenue Enterprises with 105 stores, its Parisian chain with 40 stores, and Club Libby Lu with 56 stores.

Saks said on Monday it continues to explore options for Club Libby Lu, which offers makeover and dress-up parties for girls. The chain has received buyout interest from Build-A-Bear Workshop Inc., Too Inc., and Claire's Stores Inc., according to media reports. Those retailers have declined to comment.

Birmingham, Alabama-based Saks said it will have received more than $1.7 billion in cash from the divestitures of the two department store units. With a stronger balance sheet and expectations for improved performance its Saks Fifth Avenue and Parisian businesses, Saks said it may use some the proceeds from the Northern Department Stores for share-buybacks, a special cash dividend, or both.

Saks shares were up 10.3 percent, or $1,72, at $18.38 on the New York Stock Exchange on the news of the dividends, traders said. Saks' stock trades at about 26 times Wall Street analysts' profit forecasts for next year, buoyed by expectation of the unit sales, compared with 17 times earnings for luxury retailer Nordstrom Inc.

The deal with Bon-Ton, which was approved by both companies' boards, is expected to close early in the first fiscal quarter of 2006. Bon-Ton said it expected the purchase to add to its earnings immediately after completion, with cost-cuts starting in 2006 and reaching at least $33 million by 2008.

The deal is subject to certain conditions, including Bon-Ton's financing for the transaction. Bank of America, N.A. has executed a commitment letter with Bon-Ton to provide for the financing of the transaction.

Lazard was Bon-Ton's financial adviser on the deal, while Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen served as its legal adviser. Goldman Sachs & Co. and Citigroup advised Saks.

It's definitely a different feeling when compared to Gap's other stores. This one feels more like a department store. Very lush decor, almost retro in nature... harkens back to the comfy shopping experiences of old. A large staircase welcomes you to the second floor. Vast changing rooms take up a large circular space on both the first and second floors.

This store is obviously marketed at the same demographic as Talbots... older or professional women. Paul Pressler and friends have launched a couple of brands to support this approach.

Those include:

Allegory
Features suiting with a distinctly feminine touch and classic pieces with modern elegance.

Gap Edition
Inspired by the nostalgia of Gap - fresh, casual, American style with a more mature fit.

Prize
Celebrates fun, wearable trends with flattering silhouettes, flirty fabrics, and stylish cuts.

Vocabulary
Offers comfort and graceful femininity with rich knits and pants accentuated with prints and jewelry.

Overall, nifty looking place. Clothes were rather pricey, but that was to be expected. Impressive store design. I liked the approach they tried to take there. That said, it seemed like there really wasn't a whole lot of stuff "in" the square footage they had. Probably an intentional move, but felt more empty in the end. Then again, it's just not my demographic, I guess.