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An exterior view of the Neiman Marcus\u2019 flagship store in downtown Dallas, September 30, 2026, the last business day at the upscale clothier.<\/p>\n
Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Saks Global asked for $126 million in taxpayer dollars last year to redo\u00a0\u2014 and keep open\u00a0\u2014 the\u00a0flagship Neiman Marcus<\/a> store in downtown Dallas, newly released public records show.\u00a0<\/p>\n Saks, which acquired the department store two years ago, said it was going to pursue historic tax credits and city funding to renovate the building, bring the iconic Zodiac restaurant to the ground floor and reconstruct the top seven floors into office space and a \u201cLuxury Accelerator\u201d\u00a0\u2014 a sort of incubator for fashion designers and fabricators.<\/p>\n The company, now called Exemplar Luxury Group, asked for money collected in downtown\u2019s tax increment financing zone. It presented the plan to the city over a year before Neiman Marcus permanently closed downtown. The proposal consolidated the retail store on the first two floors of the century-old building, where shoppers could\u2019ve perused the work by the designers upstairs.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Downtown Dallas Inc., the nonprofit that oversees downtown, is working to use historic tax credits to save aging buildings in the city center. Neiman Marcus is one of many fixtures leaving downtown.\u00a0<\/p>\n Saks officials did not immediately respond Wednesday about why the deal didn\u2019t materialize, but in the presentation the company said the project was not \u201cfinancially viable without the requested incentive.\u201d<\/p>\n The city\u2019s economic development officials told The Dallas Morning News\u00a0the city \u201cindefinitely paused\u201d work on the application after the company filed for bankruptcy in January and didn\u2019t do any \u201csubstantive work\u201d reviewing the proposal in the months before the pause.\u00a0<\/p>\n The News\u00a0received emails, slide decks and incentive documents this week after requesting the records from the city several times. The city attorney\u2019s office requested the Texas attorney general allow city officials to withhold the records, but the AG\u2019s office allowed a partial release.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The records show the financial considerations in the fight to keep the store downtown. The city\u2019s Landmark Commission kicked off the process to\u00a0designate the property as historic<\/a> and protect the building from demolition in August.<\/p>\n The Saks application asked for $126 million to begin construction and another $24 million in historic tax credits. The project was estimated to cost $195 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n The lead up<\/p>\n Saks Global announced early last year that it was closing its Cityplace offices and downtown store due to economic headwinds in the retail space and\u00a0a land dispute<\/a>. The company was going to prioritize growing the NorthPark mall store.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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