Bloomingdale’s at The Falls is closing. It opened 35 years ago amid violins and champagne
In a sign of the deteriorating mall retail market, Bloomingdale’s at The Falls will soon be no more.
On Monday, the parent company of Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s Inc., confirmed to the Herald that it was closing the south Miami-Dade store on Saturday, after 35 years at the mall.
“Bloomingdale’s at The Falls Miami will be going out of business effective January 11,’’ the company said in a statement. “We are proud to have served our customers and the Miami community for the past 35 years and remain committed to serving our Florida customers at our four full-line stores, three outlet stores and through online at bloomingdales.com.”
The only remaining Bloomie’s (as it is affectionately known) in Miami-Dade County will be at Aventura Mall.
The other Florida Bloomingdale’s are in the Boca Raton Town Center, Gardens Mall in Palm Beach Gardens and the Mall at Millennia in Orlando. They will stay open.
Bloomingdale’s closing represents the latest casualty in retailing, which has been hit hard by an overabundance of shopping malls at a time when an increasing number of shoppers are turning to online shopping. In 2018, holiday retail e-commerce revenues totaled $119 billion. In 2019, that was projected to reach $135 billion, a 13 percent increase, according to Statista.com
Macy’s closed nine stores in 2019 and told the Cincinnati Business Courier Monday it was closing at least two more, including one in Cincinnati, where the corporate headquarters of Macy’s Inc. is based. Macy’s Inc. owns Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s.
Pier 1 Imports also said Monday it would be closing up to 450 stores, nearly half of its outlets.
“All of the brick-and-mortar retailers are thinning out their stores,” said Cynthia Cohen, chief strategist at Impact 2040, a retail consulting firm based in New York.
“You can’t possibly have all sizes, all colors in stores anymore,” she added. “It’s much more efficient to have your inventory in a fewer number of locations, in a highly automated environment and ship from the stores you want to keep.”
The opening of Merrick Park in Coral Gables in 2002, too, siphoned high-end customers from the Falls. Merrick Park has Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and popular specialty stores such as Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel and Williams-Sonoma, among other stores. Pottery Barn and Crate & Barrel closed their Falls stores, and Williams-Sonoma is in the processing of shuttering its store there.
Merrick Park, too, was built as a lifestyle mall, complete with stores, several restaurants, including Yard House and Villagio, and high-end apartments that adjoin the mall.
The Falls, by contrast, does not have a dense high-end housing market surrounding it, as Merrick Park and Aventura do.
“There’s much more money in those condos that surround Aventura than you have in The Falls,” Cohen said. “South of The Falls the income drops dramatically and you don’t have the population density.”
Aventura also benefits from tony hotels near the mall.
“Hotels bring guests who are less price sensitive. They either need something right away or they are in a good vacation mood and not necessarily bargain hunting,” Cohen said.
To compete, retail experts say, malls have to bring in more restaurants, movies, gyms — in short, become destination and entertainment centers.
The South Florida Business Journal reported last year that a Life Time Fitness gym may be moving into the Bloomie’s site.
Simon, the company that owns the Falls, indicates on its website that Bulla Gastrobar, a popular restaurant in Coral Gables and Doral, will soon be opening at the mall, along with Honeybee Doughnuts. The movies at the Falls is also expanding.
Simon did not respond to a telephone message from the Herald.
Retail analysts estimate that more than 100 people worked at Bloomingdale’s, and the store’s departure could have a ripple effect, affecting employees who work for the store’s cleaning crew to business dropping off at the mall’s restaurants and movies.
The 225,000-square-foot, three-level Bloomingdale’s at The Falls opened on Aug. 12, 1984, to much fanfare.
According to the Miami Herald archives, two violinists played during a champagne-filled party to christen the place that cost roughly $30 million to construct.
At the time, Bloomingdale’s chairman Marvin Traub gushed that the luxury retail spot at the open air mall would be “the most beautiful store we’ve done.”
The store closed temporarily due to damage from Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
During the most recent holiday season, visitors saw the place looking like a ghost town, with few customers shopping in what should be the busiest time of year.
Late Monday afternoon, foot traffic at the Falls was light.
The one retailer doing brisk business was the Apple Store. It was packed.
Mall goers also seemed up for a quick bite and some coffee. There were no empty tables outside of Starbucks, nor at the nearby Churro Mania kiosk.
Inside Bloomingdale’s, the mood was not unlike a funeral reception. Sales clerks dressed in their usual dark business attire gathered together. Some cried as they could be overheard talking about what they’ll do next.
They said they were not permitted to talk with the media.
Thirty-seven Bloomingdale’s, founded in New York City in 1861, will remain in the United States.
Macy’s is hosting an Investor Day on Feb. 5 at the New York Stock Exchange, where more announcements will be made about the company’s future.
Miami Herald staff writer Michelle Marchante contributed to this report.
This story was originally published January 6, 2020 at 4:21 PM.
