Macy's Unveils Plans for Herald Square Remodel

Macy's Inc. (Cincinnati) has unveiled its plans for a multi-year renovation at its Herald Square flagship in New York. The project at the world’s largest department store will cost approximately $400 million in capital and take four years to complete. Additional selling space will be added to allow for expanded assortments and upgraded presentations in key merchandise categories will include shoes, handbags, cosmetics and fashion brands.

The retailer says the majority of every floor, every department and the exterior of the building will be improved over the life of the project. The store will remain open and operating during construction, with the location of some departments shifting temporarily as work progresses.

“The excitement, size and scale of this remodel reinforce our conviction that Macy's Herald Square is and will remain a retail store in a class by itself,” says Terry Lundgren, Macy's chairman, president and ceo. “It’s our company's most productive store, and experience shows that improvements in this location consistently result in higher customer traffic and sales volume.”

Work will focus on creating a modern, customer-centric shopping experience while preserving and restoring the historical integrity of the landmark building.

Among the plans are:

• A 100,000-square-foot expansion of the store's selling space to a total of 1.2 million square feet by opening up space currently used for stock and offices and extending the mezzanine level in the Broadway Building.

• A new hall of luxury brands with a series of two- and three-level shops in the Broadway Building. The current Louis Vuitton shop will be updated and enlarged to multiple floors. Other new shops to be announced will be added for luxury goods, including handbags and shoes.

• Creating the world's largest women's shoe department – a total of 39,000 square feet of continuous selling space (63,000 square feet including stockrooms) on the second floor. The department will offer an assortment of fashion and luxury footwear (as many as 300,000 pairs of shoes available on any given day), including access to the second level of luxury brand shops. Part of the footwear space will be an all-new concept for a coffee/wine/chocolate bar.

• Restoring the first floor great hall with an all-new presentation of cosmetics, fragrances and fine jewelry. The original great hall's ceiling height will be restored.

• Creating an entirely new Impulse presentation of contemporary apparel and accessories for the millennial customer.

• Creating an entirely new “mstylelab” presentation of juniors and young men's in the Lower Level. This will be a technology-infused environment of products and services appealing to the social instincts of younger customers. Apparel brands will be complemented by juniors' accessories, shoes, cosmetics and services such as a nail bar and salon. Also incorporated into the Lower Level will be a complex of casual dining experiences, including concepts created by Macy's Culinary Council of celebrity chefs and a brew pub that will remain open beyond normal store hours.

• A significant expansion and enhancement of men's merchandise, which will grow to cover about 200,000 square feet of selling space over seven floors of the Seventh Avenue Building.

• A new table-service restaurant on the sixth floor with windows overlooking Broadway. This all-new restaurant will be among 22 restaurants and foodservice stations throughout the store that will accommodate seating for about 1100 customers, an increase of nearly 40 percent.

• An entirely new world of home merchandise on the eighth and ninth floors, including an enhanced demonstration kitchen and relocated De Gustibus Cooking School.

• A restoration of the store's exterior. The ornate “Memorial Entrance” on 34th Street will be restored and reopened. Windows along Broadway, 34th Street and Seventh Avenue, which have been covered up over the years, will be reopened. Windows on the upper floors also will be uncovered to allow more natural light into the building.

• Preservation of 42 of 43 historic wooden escalators in the current store – a unique and distinguishing feature of Macy's Herald Square.

Macy's Herald Square anchors two of the top retail corners in America – Broadway/34th Street and Seventh Avenue/34th Street. The first portion of the current Macy's Herald Square store (the majority of the current Broadway Building) was opened in 1902. The store was expanded in three additional phases to its current form by 1931. The current building includes nearly 2.2 million gross square feet.