Macy’s Sells Downtown Pittsburgh Building for Redevelopment; Store to Close

CINCINNATI--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Macy’s, Inc. (NYSE: M) today announced it has sold its downtown Pittsburgh building at 400 Fifth Avenue to Philadelphia-based Core Realty, which is planning a major mixed-use redevelopment for the historic building. Macy’s will close its store in that location.

“For the past four years, Macy’s has been investigating the best possible use for this property, especially given the large amount of unproductive and unused space on the upper floors. We have talked with a wide variety of partners in pursuit of a plan that would create the most value for our company and the community,” said Jeff Kantor, Macy’s chief stores officer. “In late 2014, we began working with Core Realty, which had an exciting vision for residential, hotel and parking on the upper floors and annex building. More recently, we decided to make the entire building available to Core so it could evolve its plans into a more holistic project. We believe this will be an outstanding addition to the downtown Pittsburgh community in an important location in the heart of the city.

“Macy’s – and Kaufmann’s before us – have served the downtown Pittsburgh community at this location since 1887, and we deeply appreciate the relationship we have built with generations of Pittburghers, including our customers, associates, community leaders and elected officials,” he said. “While we will not operate a downtown store going forward, Macy’s remains committed to our customers and associates at 13 other local stores in southwestern Pennsylvania as well as on macys.com.”

A final clearance sale in the downtown Pittsburgh store will begin on Monday, July 20, and is expected to run until early September.

The Macy’s building and annex includes about 1.2 million square feet of space on 13 floors, partial street-level and arcade floors, a basement and sub-basement. Currently, about 475,000 square feet is Macy’s selling space. The original Kaufmann’s store was opened in 1887 and was expanded several times until 1913, and then again in the 1950s. Kaufmann’s was acquired by The May Department Stores Company in 1946 which, in turn, was acquired by the predecessor of Macy’s, Inc. in 2005. The Kaufmann’s nameplate was changed to Macy’s in September 2006.

“Our decision to close downtown is not a reflection of the store’s management and staff, who have done a great job at serving the downtown customer,” Kantor said. The current downtown Pittsburgh store workforce includes 170 employees. The company is committed to treating these affected associates with respect and openness. Associates displaced by the closing may be offered positions in nearby stores where possible. Eligible full-time and part-time associates who are laid off due to the store closing will be offered severance benefits.

In addition, about 30 Macy’s associates who work in various district offices on the 11th floor of the downtown Pittsburgh building will be relocated to space in another Macy’s store in the Pittsburgh area.

Going forward, Macy’s workforce in the Greater Pittsburgh area will include about 2,450 associates.

Macy’s, Inc., with corporate offices in Cincinnati and New York, is one of the nation’s premier retailers, with fiscal 2014 sales of $28.105 billion. The company operates about 885 stores in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico under the names of Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Bloomingdale’s Outlet and Bluemercury, as well as the macys.com, bloomingdales.com and bluemercury.com websites. Bloomingdale’s in Dubai is operated by Al Tayer Group LLC under a license agreement.

All statements in this press release that are not statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of Macy’s management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those expressed in or implied by the forward-looking statements contained in this release because of a variety of factors, including conditions to, or changes in the timing of, proposed transactions, prevailing interest rates and non-recurring charges, competitive pressures from specialty stores, general merchandise stores, off-price and discount stores, manufacturers’ outlets, the Internet, mail-order catalogs and television shopping and general consumer spending levels, including the impact of the availability and level of consumer debt, the effect of weather and other factors identified in documents filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

(NOTE: Additional information on Macy’s, Inc., including past news releases, is available at www.macysinc.com/pressroom).

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150713005704/en/

Macy’s, Inc.
Media - Jim Sluzewski, 513-579-7764
Elina Kazan, 646-429-7448
or
Investor – Matt Stautberg, 513-579-7780

Source: Macy’s, Inc.

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