Federated Closing Six Units

The Lord & Taylor stores that will close, with the closings scheduled for late July or early August, include a 115,000-sf location at the St. Louis Galleria and a 140,000-sf store at West County, both in St. Louis.

The others slated for closing are 129,000-sf at Christiana Mall in Newark, DE; 122,000 sf at Fairlane Town Center in Dearborn, MI and 114,000 sf at the Northshore Mall in Peabody, MA. In addition, Federated will convert the 354,000-sf current Lord & Taylor store in Downtown Philadelphia to a Macy's. It will open as Macy's on or about Aug. 1, following some minor remodeling.

Besides these moves, Federated will close the 621,000-sf Strawbridge's store in Downtown Philadelphia and will seek buyers or replacement tenants for space currently occupied by Strawbridge's. The company plans to continue operating its remaining 49 Lord & Taylor stores in New Jersey, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida and the District of Columbia will remain open and operating.

Federated acquired Lord & Taylor in August 2005 as part of its merger with the May Department Stores Co. It has previously announced plans to divest the Lord & Taylor division in a transaction that is expected before the end of this year.

The Robinsons-May store in Scottsdale is a 283,000-sf location at Scottsdale Fashion Square. Federated, which acquired the store it as part of the May Co. merger, says it is divesting the location because it duplicates an existing Macy's in the same mall.

The Scottsdale location brings to 79 the total number of duplicate stores the company intends to divest in connection with its May Co. merger. Federated says it may make additional moves in its continuing review of that portfolio.