Retail Roundup: Last call for Neiman Marcus' off-price store on LI

It’s the last call for Last Call.

Neiman Marcus Last Call, an off-price clothing and home decor store, will close at Tanger Outlets Deer Park on Aug. 31, according to a state Labor Department filing. 

The Deer Park store and one in Brooklyn will be among 17 Last Calls that high-end retailer Neiman Marcus will close by fall, leaving five open, but none in New York State, according to Neiman Marcus Group LTD LLC, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May.

The Last Call in Deer Park was among about 70 new stores at Tanger when the shopping center opened in October 2008, according to Newsday archives. The store was the first Neiman Marcus presence of any kind on Long Island and the second Last Call in the state. 

Located at 152 The Arches Circle in Suite 201, Last Call’s store in Tanger is about 32,000 square feet, Neiman Marcus said.

24 employees affected 

The store's closing will affect 24 employees, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN, alert Neiman Marcus Group submitted to the New York State Department of Labor in July.

Under the WARN Act, certain employers must notify workers and the state in advance of mass layoffs or work site closings.

Neiman Marcus Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection May 7, but the Dallas-based company had announced in March that it planned to close most of its Last Call stores to focus on full-price offerings.

“This decision will help ensure the continued long-term success of our business and underscores our unrelenting focus on providing unparalleled luxury experiences and engagement,” a spokesman said in an email Tuesday.

Hudson Yards store closing, too 

In addition to the 17 Last Calls that will close, four Neiman Marcus stores will be shuttered, including one in Hudson Yards, the massive retail, residential and office development that opened in March 2019 in Manhattan.

Founded in 1907, Neiman Marcus Group has 67 stores, including two Bergdorf Goodman stores in Manhattan and 43 Neiman Marcus locations. The only Neiman Marcus on Long Island is at Roosevelt Field mall in Garden City.

Neiman Marcus Group is “facing unprecedented disruption” because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Geoffroy van Raemdonck, chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement announcing the bankruptcy filing in May. But the company had been struggling before the health crisis as it tried to compete with online retailers.

Neiman Marcus Group's debt includes $5.1 billion that it owes on loans, according to a bankruptcy court filing.

“This company had a huge amount of debt, highly leveraged, before the bankruptcy began. And that huge amount of debt left it in a very weak position to deal with COVID,” said Patrick T. Collins, an attorney at Farrell Fritz, P.C. in Uniondale who focuses on bankruptcies and restructuring. 

Retail Roundup is a column about major retail news on Long Island — store openings, closings, expansions, acquisitions, etc. — that is published online and in the Monday paper. To read more of these columns, click here. If you have news to share, please send an email to Newsday reporter Tory N. Parrish at tory.parrish@newsday.com.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.comToryParrish1

Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.