PROVIDENCE — In the midst of closing 150 locations over three years, the Macy’s located in the Providence Place Mall has been listed for sale.
The listing is being handled by a six-person team at Atlantic Capital Partners, but its details have been masked from public view unless a potential buyer signs a confidentiality agreement. It’s unclear when the listing was posted or what the total asking price is. The retail space, which is one of the mall’s anchor stores, is more than 206,000 square feet, according to listing information obtained by the Globe.
When asked about the fate of the downtown store this week, a Macy’s spokeswoman said the Providence Place Mall store will “remain open.” The department store chain is working on its strategy to return the company “to profitable growth and enhance the customer experience” by closing approximately 150 stores, the spokesperson, who said it was against company policy to use their name, said.
“There is a current evaluation underway on multiple Macy’s locations comparing the potential real estate value and the future sales growth profitability potential,” the spokesperson told the Globe in an emailed statement. “We look forward to continuing to serve our customers at Macy’s Providence Place Mall.”
Atlantic Capital Partners’ partner Peter Considine, who is one of the listing’s primary contacts, declined to provide any additional information.
Providence Place has reached a tipping point in recent weeks after years of financial problems. The 1.4-million-square-foot mall in the heart of Providence opened in 1999, and lost its longtime anchor tenant Nordstrom in January 2019. It was a blow to the city, and the space was later filled that same year by Boscov’s, a Pennsylvania-based family-owned department store.
In a voicemail left on a Globe reporter’s phone this week, Boscov’s chairman Jim Boscov said the department chain “has a great store” in Providence, and that he looks forward to visiting the store in a few weeks. Boscov could not be immediately reached on Thursday.
As online shopping continues to attract more customers, malls across the US have suffered and even closed. Others have had to readapt to changing times and attract new businesses. Providence Place is no exception. In the last year, Massachusetts-based Night Shift Brewing, interactive game and restaurant space Level99, and Brazilian steakhouse chain Fogo de Chão, have all moved into empty retail spaces. Fogo de Chão completely renovated a space that had long sat vacant into a posh restaurant. During the ribbon cutting and grand opening in 2023, CEO Barry McGowan walked around, stopped at various tables and spoke to customers about his favorite cuts of meat. Those new leases and investments instilled a new sense of hope for the mall.
But that hope came crashing down in late October when Rhode Island Superior Court Judge Brian Stern ordered Providence Place, the state’s largest shopping mall, into receivership after lenders alleged the mall’s management company owes them more than $259 million. According to court filings, US Bank National Association represents private lenders who collectively loaned $305 million to GGP-Providence Place LLC and Brookfield Properties, the mall’s Chicago-based management company, in 2011.
According to a petition filed by the US Bank National Association’s attorney on Oct. 29, the loan was extended and modified in August 2021 and matured on May 6. Since then, Brookfield Properties “has failed and/or refused to pay” its outstanding balance.
Lindsay Kahn, a spokesperson for Brookfield Properties, declined to comment for this story. Macy’s has a long-term lease for the space, the department store’s spokesperson told the Globe.
Despite legal challenges, some store executives are trying to remain optimistic.
“We’re confident in the mall’s future as we see our business grow and word gets around Rhode Island about Level99′s unique brand of interactive entertainment,” Level99 founder and CEO Matt DuPlessie told the Globe in a statement.
On Wednesday night around 7 p.m., the shelves at Macy’s Providence store were brimming with inventory in nearly every department. Parts of the store were decorated for the holidays, with Christmas trees adorned with shiny ornaments and twinkling lights, shelves filled with gift boxes of perfume, and racks lined with sparkling holiday dresses. Yet, like the rest of the mall, there was a lack of customers. Employees in the cosmetics department gathered together to chat, there weren’t any lines at any of the cash registers in the Backstage (Macy’s bargain brand) section of the store, and entire corners selling luggage, homeware, and furniture were quiet.
Macy’s chief executive Tony Spring said earlier this year the department store chain needs to shrink in order to make sure it does not become less relevant to shoppers. Spring, who became the store’s new boss in February, announced the chain would shutter about 30 percent of its fleet and then upgrade its remaining 350 Macy’s locations.
This strategy, a Macy’s spokesperson told the Globe this week, would allow the company to focus on its investments on Macy’s “go-forward” locations, including furniture and current off-mall locations and Bloomingdale’s, Bloomingdale’s Outlet, and Bluemercury stores.
In August, Spring told investors during an earnings call that the company is seeing strong interest in the real estate it has put on the market, and has found a deal solid enough that it would shutter even more stores this fiscal year — up to 55 from 50 — than originally planned.
“While non-go-forward locations are underperformers relative to the total Macy’s fleet, they are valuable real estate assets,” Spring said during the call on Aug. 21. “Demand for these properties has been strong.”
Alexa Gagosz can be reached at alexa.gagosz@globe.com. Follow her @alexagagosz and on Instagram @AlexaGagosz.