Fast-fashion retailer Forever 21 is actively closing its "flagship" store at Lenox Square in Buckhead. The more than 27,000 square foot store opened in the popular Buckhead mall in October 2011 and survived one bankruptcy, but it seems will not be so lucky this time around.
Landlords Simon Property Group (owner of Lenox Square and Phipps Plaza) and Brookfield Corporation (owner of Perimeter Mall and Cumberland Mall), as well as licensing firm Authentic Brands Group - collectively SPARC Group - purchased Forever 21 out of bankruptcy in February 2020 for $81 million.
Interestingly, with a stable of retail brands that also includes Aeropostale and Brooks Brothers, SPARC partnered with Forever 21 online rival SHEIN in August 2023, making the Singapore-based online retailer a new owner in the business.
This past January, SPARC Group merged with JCPenney to create Catalyst Brands.
Forever 21 once operated more than 500 stores in the U.S. and 800 worldwide. According to a report by Bloomberg, the company currently operates about 350 locations across the country but could close about 200 stores as it prepares an imminent bankruptcy filing, after which it hopes to find a buyer for its remaining stores.
The massive store at Lenox Square is located on Lenox Square's primary "mall level" but is located in the rear of the mall in a low traffic, low interest area. (Much of the Forever 21 space was home to Restoration Hardware before its relocation to a massive freestanding building on Peachtree Road that consolidated all of their Atlanta stores into one.)
Owner Simon Property Group will undoubtedly have a far more challenging job backfilling the Forever 21 space than they did in previous years with the closures of junior anchors such as Pottery Barn and Topshop. In those large "mall level" spaces, Simon saw significant interest and was able to carve them up into smaller spaces for several new tenants.
The two exceptions to this theory are fellow fast fashion retailers Fashion Nova and UNIQLO.
Fashion Nova, which saw its greatest success as a direct-to-consumer (DTC) business in 2013 with heavy use of affiliate marketing, has today expanded into five brick-and-mortar stores, all in its home state of California. Given the brand's popularity and the consumers it targets, Lenox Square and its less than prime location could make sense if Fashion Nova chose to expand beyond The Golden State.
UNIQLO on the other hand, a Japanese fast fashion retailer known for its sleeker Asian flair, has grown to include 72 locations across the country and reportedly is keen on entering Atlanta but is not likely to be interested in such a low profile, low traffic location.
In metro Atlanta, Forever 21 operates another "flagship" location at Atlantic Station which opened in late 2019, as well as other stores in North Point Mall, Cumberland Mall, Perimeter Mall, Mall of Georgia, Sugarloaf Mills, Town Center at Cobb, and The Mall at Stonecrest. In total, the retailer currently operates eighteen stores in the state.
Are you surprised to see that Forever 21 is closing at Lenox Square? What would you like to see open in place of Forever 21 at Lenox Square? When was the last time you shopped at Lenox Square?
Please share your thoughts below.
12 comments:
Cowboys and Caviar just closed across from Perimeter Mall. Their fixtures etc. were basically thrown out onto the sidewalk.
Pop-up Halloween store incoming? Buckhead's new bread and butter.
So many of the clothing stores at Lenox cater to teens and 20's so maybe it's just overload. I wish JJill would move over but they told me that Phipps is easier to navigate in terms of parking and traffic.
Are they selling the fixtures or are they free?
Open the floodgates, here come the racist remarks….I’m sure the gnowhaisayin guy is ready to pounce.
Uniqlo needs to come to Atlanta soon. Great quality for cheap prices unless these other fast fashion brands.
Surprising since that store should appeal to the ghetto demographic of Lenox Square, but they seem to be more into Zara as I witnessed today. I suppose it’s now also acceptable to stroll through Macy’s in bare feet. Between the ghetto types and the third world people, Lenox is trashy.
Then don’t go anymore. Find some whites only mall to shop in instead.
Wow, ghetto and trashy, what an extensive vocabulary. Are you afraid of them sir? (cause we know you are a sir)
I like my coffee black, I have a black and decker toaster, my favorite actress is Karen Black, I use to live in Blackshear Georgia, my favorite store is White House black market, and I go online and buy clothing off the black market, so what’s the problem?
You. You are the problem.
H&M
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