Neiman Marcus was founded in downtown Dallas in 1907 and has been a luxury fashion leader worldwide ever since. News that the company has been sold to a New York-based rival has loyalists worrying the brand will be tarnished and the city will lose important cultural cachet.
Dallas, TX
Neiman Marcus purchase by Saks parent creates high anxiety in Dallas fashion world
Neiman Marcus is the essence of Dallas’ fashion psyche.
Carrie Marcus Neiman, her husband Al Neiman, and her brother Herbert Marcus opened the first Neiman Marcus in downtown in 1907, and the business was an instant success — winning the hearts of Dallasites who wanted more than ordering goods from the Sears Roebuck catalog.
Stanley Marcus joined the family business 18 years later after graduating from Harvard University. He used lessons gleaned from his aunt Carrie to create a worldwide luxury retailing mecca that has survived three ownership changes in the past 20 years — including bankruptcy.
Now the proposed purchase of its parent company by the parent company of Saks Fifth Avenue for $2.65 billion has created high anxiety in Dallas’ fashionista world.
The deal will end more than 115 years of Neiman Marcus being run from Dallas, most of that time as a global luxury leader.
Saks parent HBC finally put out a press release Thursday detailing the proposed transaction, saying it will create Saks Global, “a combination of world-class luxury retail and real estate assets, including Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks OFF 5TH, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman, each of which will continue operations under their respective brands.”
Accent on “brands.”
That’s what concerns Neiman’s loyalists.
Just another brand?
Will Neiman Marcus become just another brand in HBC’s luxury lineup?
While the news release makes the case for why Neiman Marcus’ purchase makes economic sense, it also indicates a pecking order: “Saks Fifth Avenue is the leading name in luxury shopping.”
That’s certainly debatable, said Maria Halkias, The Dallas Morning News’ longtime retail reporter, who retired last month.
“Richard Baker, CEO of HBC, has lusted over Neiman Marcus for years,” said Halkias, who closely covered luxury retailing for 31 years.
The crux of the matter, she said, is whether HBC can put these fierce competitors under one corporate umbrella and keep their stores relevant at a time when luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Hermès continue to take an exponentially larger share of the market with their own stores and e-commerce.
Most worrisome is consumers might see a deterioration of the personalized service that sets Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman apart from its new owner, she said.
“Neiman Marcus,” she said, “is the reason there have been no full-line Saks Fifth Avenue stores in Dallas-Fort Worth for years and why Barneys New York came and left twice. Neiman’s NorthPark Center store is consistently the No. 1 volume store in the chain. Bergdorf Goodman is a juggernaut in Manhattan.”
In an exclusive interview with The News on Friday, Marc Metrick concurred with that assessment. The Saks Global CEO is poised to lead Neiman Marcus once the deal closes.
“You’re sitting in Dallas right now, and how many Saks Fifth Avenues are in that market?” Metrick said. “It’s a testament to the culture at Neiman Marcus that we could not pierce that market. There’s so much loyalty, and there’s so many dedicated folks and they love their Neiman’s there. It’s very exciting to be able to go in and to really think about, how can you expand on that, how can you build on that?”
Forgive folks here if they’re wary.
Lynchpin of Dallas’ fashion identity
Neiman Marcus has been the lynchpin of Dallas’ fashion identity that spawned NorthPark and the wholesale Apparel Mart, said Tracy Hayes, former fashion editor of The News.
“Sitting for a Gittings portrait [the official portrait studio of the Neiman Marcus brand], being married in a wedding gown from the downtown NM bridal salon, having a multi-generational Christmas lunch in the Zodiac Room — those were the rites of passage and markers of Dallas’ membership in Dallas’ high society,” Hayes said.
The cachet of being the newspaper’s representative in the city where Neiman’s planted its flagship and homebase guaranteed Hayes a front-row seat when she covered European runway collections in the 1980s and 1990s.
“The store was also the launchpad for a host of other people who went on to make their marks with other ventures that burnished Dallas’ image — from the Horchow Collection’s Roger Horchow to Brian Bolke with Forty Five Ten and the Conservatory,” she said.
“It’s almost impossible to imagine Dallas without Neiman Marcus.”
Family’s international legacy
Allison V. Smith, Stanley Marcus’ granddaughter, said the family’s international legacy will live on no matter who owns the company.
“Stanley and his aunt Carrie Marcus Neiman originated the annual Neiman Marcus Award in 1938,” said Smith, referring to the global prize that honors breakthrough talent in fashion from across the globe. “Later, Stanley created Neiman Marcus Fortnights [lavish multi-event celebrations themed after a specific country], bringing world-wide attention to Dallas, thus changing Dallasites’ perception of themselves and the city we live in.
“Through major acts of creativity and a laser focus on quality, they gave us the lasting gift of excellence.”
Kate Sheldon, CEO of Fashioneering LLC, has been associated with Neiman Marcus throughout her 34-year career — as a couture designer, a Neiman Marcus buyer and, most recently, as a consultant for clients who either do business with Neiman’s or aspire to.
“As a Texan, Neiman Marcus has been my sparkly touchstone throughout my life,” she said. “The days of working to scour the globe like truffle hunters to create the most beautifully unique assortments and experiences are long gone.”
(Allison V. Smith)
‘End of an era’
The sale to Saks has deepened her angst.
“A lot of the specialness — Neiman Marcus’ special sauce — that remains is at risk,” she said. “We will all be armchair quarterbacking this situation for decades to come. I will be talking about this in the nursing home, I have no doubt.”
Sheldon said her colleagues knew in their guts the days of consolidation were probably in the wings. “But we really hoped we would be on the buying end,” she said. “No matter how you slice it, this is the end of an era.”
Lisa Dawson, president of Kim Dawson Agency Inc., says the modeling agency owes its existence to “Mr. Stanley,” as her mother Kim Dawson called him.
When her mother decided to return home to Texas after modeling in New York, the only modeling job in North Texas was at Neiman Marcus’ Zodiac Room.
“People were always complaining that they couldn’t get in touch with models,” Lisa Dawson recalled. “This was before cell phones, beepers or even answering machines.”
Her mom offered to organize the models and take a small percentage. Mr. Stanley thought that was a great idea. “Without Mr. Stanley’s help and encouragement, my mom might not have made that leap.”
Neiman Marcus was the agency’s first client, and 60 years later, it remains one of the agency’s largest.
Is this the end of an era?
She certainly hopes not.
Dawson worries about the possibility of Neiman’s being rolled into Saks. “If that happens, I assume that they would take a lot of the work that we do to New York. I don’t know that,” she said.
“Yeah, if we lost all that, it would be bad.”
She wonders what will happen to the Neiman Marcus Christmas Book and its fantasy items. “Even though very few people can afford to buy them, it’s always fun to see what they are,” she said.
“Neiman’s is not the store that it was when the family owned it, but it’s still a wonderful store and a great brand, so I would hate to see it go away. That would be really sad.”
Take a chill pill
Annette Becker, director and curator of the Texas Fashion Collection at the University of North Texas, says it’s time for people to take a chill pill.
“As the person who runs a fashion collection first started by Neiman Marcus in 1938, I see this as just one more step in its very long and rich history,” Becker said. “I’m honestly not worried about the brand. Because Neiman Marcus is such a storied institution, the name Neiman Marcus holds tremendous cultural capital and it will continue to hold its place in our society.”
Karen Katz, former CEO of Neiman Marcus Group, agrees and see this as another chapter in the iconic history of the retailer. “It has changed ownership at least half a dozen times since 1907, and it continues to live on,” said Katz, who stepped down from her post in January 2019.
Is it likely to become just another brand in HBC’s lineup?
“This is hard to predict,” she said, “but I believe Richard Baker understands the value of the Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman brands, how important the customers are to each of these brands, and the value of the NM and BG teams that serve the customer day in and day out.”
Here’s hoping he does.
Dallas, TX
Wilonsky: Famous Dallas architect’s motel is now an ‘infamous criminal hub’ on Harry Hines
It’s been a minute since someone called me “fake news.” Forgot how hilarious it sounds when it’s said seriously.
It happened early Tuesday afternoon at the Cole Manor Motel on Harry Hines Boulevard, where I’d gone to check out a joint that city attorneys allege has long been “a storefront for prostitution, drug use, and the sale and manufacturing of illicit drugs.” A Dallas police car was pulling out as I was turning in.
Just inside the shabby, square-shaped motor court whose swimming pool was long ago filled in, a half-masked security guard who appeared to be wearing a bulletproof vest helped a woman roll a new mattress into a dark room. He directed me to the front office, where a young woman stood behind thick, murky glass that made her look out of focus.
I asked who the owner was. She said she didn’t know. There were notes taped to the glass: “NO ID, No Room.” “Toilet Tissue Roll $1.00.”
As I was pulling into Cole Manor on Tuesday afternoon, a Dallas police car was exiting. A DPD spokesperson said it was for a “routine investigation” but offered no further specifics about the visit.
Robert Wilonsky
The security guard went to get another woman, who acted like she was in charge. I asked about the city’s lawsuit, filed in April, which calls Cole Manor an “infamous crime hub.” I mentioned the court order signed last month that requires the motel’s operator to pay the city nearly $1 million in civil penalties and demands the motel be secured by Dec. 21 with, among dozens of other things, a vehicle access gate and a license plate reader.
“Fake news,” the woman snapped before locking herself behind the bulletproof glass. I offered to go to the car to get legal docs.
“I don’t want to disclose any information about that,” she said. At which point, the guard suggested that maybe this interview was over.
I hadn’t visited the motel since Christmas Eve 2018, when it made Preservation Dallas’ list of this city’s most-endangered historic buildings — given its age (it opened in 1946 as El Sombrero Motor Courts), architect (the revered Charles Dilbeck) and proximity to an ever-expanding Medical District devouring surrounding properties. Dilbeck, responsible for hundreds of whimsical residences from Oak Cliff to Preston Hollow, revolutionized the look, feel and function of the post-war motor lodge, best evidenced by his most beloved local lodge, the Belmont Hotel.
There’s much to say about Cole Manor’s significance and past, which includes countless crimes dating back to a night in January 1950, when both local newspapers reported that three men stuck a gun in the face of the auto court’s manager and stole $300. That was the first time, but far from the last, the motel made news.
A March 25, 1958, Dallas Morning News story — about a “pants bandit” hitting, among other locations, the El Sombrero Motor Courts — was one of several crime stories from the 1950s that ran in this newspaper.
The Dallas Morning News
But first we must reckon with its present — and its future — as Cole Manor heads to trial next month. Because property owner Manor Hospitality Corp.’s attorney says this isn’t his client’s fault or problem. The motel’s longtime owner instead blames its rap sheet on the operator who’s allegedly been booted from the motel and is nowhere to be found, even in court.
The city doesn’t see it that way, citing sections of the Texas Local Government Code that place responsibility at the feet of the property owner. Jill Haning, the city’s deputy chief of the litigation division, said via email that when this case hits a courtroom next month, “The city will ask the court to either appoint a receiver to take possession and control of the property to abate the violations and ongoing criminal activity or issue an order requiring the property owner to do so.”
In court documents, city attorneys say they’ve been working with the motel’s owner since 2002 to identify and eradicate the crime and code violations — only to have the issues re-emerge time and again. That includes 28 police calls in the last three years, including numerous aggravated assaults, drug manufacturing and, police say, the shooting death of a 69-year-old woman.
“As the saying goes,” says the complaint, “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
One of the biggest crimes at the Cole Manor Motel was the removal a few years ago of the sign planted along Harry Hines when the motor court was renamed decades ago.
Daniel Carde / Staff Photographer
The lawsuit also says federal and local law enforcement in February “took down a seven-person drug trafficking operation that operated out of the Cole Manor Motel for at least a year.” Per the suit, a search warrant resulted in five arrests and the recovery of six guns, fentanyl, crack and $20,000. The city finally sued Manor Hospitality Corp. and its operator, Bhumiya3 LLC, in April.
Bhumiya3 appears to be one person, Irving resident Nilam Patel, whom I couldn’t reach. He also never responded to the lawsuit and didn’t appear in court last month, resulting in a judge slapping him with a pile of code violations totaling $960,256.
Manor Hospitality Corp.’s president is Mike Patel, whose number is the same as Cole Manor’s and doesn’t work anyway, in case you were considering making reservations. Patel has owned the Cole Manor for more than 25 years.
I asked Lance “Luke” Beshara, Manor Hospitality’s Fort Worth-based attorney, how long Bhumiya3 was running the motel on his client’s behalf. He said he didn’t know, but noted that its lease was terminated after the city filed its suit. When I asked who was running the place now, he said he didn’t know.
“Probably a new tenant,” he said. “I am sure my client is trying to find someone who wants to keep it open. They’re not going to let the property sit vacant. That would be a terrible idea, A vacant motel? You really think it’s going to stay vacant? People would break in.”
Beshara said his client met with Dallas’ attorneys earlier this year, at which point, he said, Manor Hospitality first became aware of the city’s numerous allegations.
“So,” I said, “you’re telling me your client was not aware of what was going on at the motel?”
Beshara said that was “not a fair question.” I asked why.
The swimming pool that used to sit in the middle of the motor court was long ago paved over.
Robert Wilonsky
“No, my client was not aware of any of these incidents,” he said. “Later on the city did send a letter referencing its nuisance ordinance and provided a list of certain alleged offenses. They said we have these reports. We got a letter with unsubstantiated offenses that supposedly occurred and were somehow related to my client’s property.”
He said that after a meeting with city attorneys, Patel hired a security guard and installed a gate, though where, I have no idea. And I drive by the Cole Manor at least once a day every day.
But there’s no need to try this here. A temporary injunction hearing set for Jan. 8, to be followed by a trial 18 days later, will help decide the future of the Cole Manor.
New apartments are going in behind the Cole Manor Motel on Empire Central Drive.
Robert Wilonsky
As for its past, I called architect Willis Winters, Dallas’ former parks department director, to confirm the motel is a Dilbeck. “Absolutely,” he said. Winters would know, as author of a forthcoming Texas A&M University biography of the architect.
“You can tell by the architectural vocabulary of the building, how the façade was very complex, visually interesting,” Winters said of the motel. “It engages your eye as you’re trying to understand why it’s doing what it’s doing. The octagonal windows, the roof overhangs, the cupolas along the roof, the vents. All these items he added for visual texture and visual character to draw interest to the building and make people driving by in 1946 want to turn in there and check in for the night.”
Winters said he used to drive past the Cole Manor every day, but turned in for the first time earlier this year. He stayed only as long as it took him to turn around and leave.
The Dallas City Council has approved a zoning proposal for a planned H-E-B, even as the plan drew concerns and some support from the community.
The slated project cleared a key hurdle for the roughly 10-acre site in North Dallas that would bring the first H-E-B namesake to the city, adding to the existing Central Market locales and its Joe V’s Smart Shops. The new grocer would land at the southeast corner of Hillcrest Road and LBJ Freeway, according to the agenda filing.
The City Council approval followed roughly an hour and a half of testimony about the proposal with many saying the new grocery store would create too many traffic headaches in an area that’s already grappling with too many vehicles. Some folks spoke out in favor of the proposal, saying the company is a great member of the community already and that it would be a good addition to that area of Dallas.
Related
The proposal for the property was for an “RR Regional Retail District,” on the site that’s been zoned “NO(A) Neighborhood Office District,” according to a document filed with the city. The proposal included deed restrictions volunteered by the applicant.
“We appreciate the thoughtful consideration from city officials, staff, and community members throughout this process,” Mabrie Jackson, H-E-B managing director of public affairs, said in an emailed statement. “We are committed to serving Texans and look forward to bringing our first H-E-B store to the city of Dallas.”
Among the more than two dozen people who spoke up at the meeting, there were concerns about large trucks doing deliveries and traffic stacking up around the intersection.
The City Council initially considered a denial of the zoning request without prejudice, a motion that would fail. Council member Adam Bazaldua didn’t support it.
“It was a social media craze when H-E-B started coming to the region, but I want to highlight that word and say the region,” Bazaldua said. “One of the things that I saw and heard a million times was, ‘When are they coming to Dallas?’ … We continue to put ourselves in positions where we have allowed for other municipalities, other jurisdictions, to compete with us.”
The Council member added: “I hope that we can support bringing this H-E-B to the city limits, the first one, and it’ll be the first of many to come.
For the vote, Mayor Eric Johnson said “sounds like it was 14-1,” during the meeting.
This season hasn’t gone the way the Dallas Mavericks expected, even though they’re showing signs of life recently. They enter the NBA Cup week off with a 9-16 record, but they have won four of the last five, with wins over the Miami Heat, Denver Nuggets, and Houston Rockets, which are all good victories.
But how is the ceiling, realistically? If it’s anything less than at least a Conference Semifinals appearance, they need to think about the future around Cooper Flagg and sell on some veterans. And that could be exactly what they’re doing.
According to ESPN’s NBA insider Shams Charania, the Mavericks are expected to explore trades for multiple key veterans on the team.
“The Mavericks are open to exploring the trade markets for Anthony Davis, center Daniel Gafford, and guards Klay Thompson and D’Angelo Russell, sources said,” Charania started.
“…Thompson, who joined Dallas during free agency in July 2024, was sold on joining the Mavericks to play alongside Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving on a team coming off a run to the Finals. With Doncic gone and the franchise winning at a below-.500 clip, teams across the league know Thompson prefers to be part of a contender over the remaining two years of his three-year, $50 million deal. After a slow start to the season, the four-time champion is averaging 12.8 points per game on 39.5% 3-point shooting in his past 10 games while holding opponents to 38.5% shooting as their closest defender, which ranks 10th out of 120 guards to defend 50-plus shots since the stretch began.”
READ MORE: Anthony Davis helping Mavericks move up in NBA power rankings
Mavericks Shouldn’t Stop There With Trades
Realistically, the only players on this roster who are safe moving forward this year are Cooper Flagg, Kyrie Irving, P.J. Washington, and maybe Dereck Lively II. Once Ryan Nembhard becomes a standard contract, he’ll be safe, too.
Washington’s contract extension makes him ineligible to be traded until after the season. Naji Marshall should probably be included there as well, but if the right offer comes across the table, no one should be safe.
And that could go for Dereck Lively II, but his injuries could have teams around the NBA concerned. It’s clear he doesn’t have the same type of impact without a superstar point guard setting the table for him, and he’s only played in about 50% of the games he’s been available.
Dallas should definitely focus on trying to clear the books of Caleb Martin and Jaden Hardy, as their contracts could really hold the team down in the future, considering how little they play.
One could argue that Kyrie Irving could be shopped, but they’ve made it clear that they want to build around Irving and Flagg for the next few years.
READ MORE: NBA expert makes case for Mavericks to keep Anthony Davis amid trade rumors
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