Saks Fifth Avenue will close its store at 5555 Wisconsin Avenue in the Friendship Heights area of Chevy Chase by the end of May. The high-end department store chain announced it will close 12 stores as part of its ongoing bankruptcy woes. This includes the Tysons location, as well as landmark stores on Chicago's Magnificent Mile, on Long Island, and at South Coast Plaza in Orange County, California. Saks' Chevy Chase outpost has been just such a landmark since it opened in 1964, as the grand department stores slowly realized the future - and their customers - were in the suburbs.
The departure of Saks will open a potentially huge redevelopment opportunity for property owner CCLC. With Amazon Fresh also having closed at the Collection at Chevy Chase development, the company is free to seriously consider knocking most or all of the retail and office structures down, and build a mixed use "town center" that would fall somewhere on the scale between their Chevy Chase Lake project and Federal Realty's Pike & Rose. The current Collection retail center was constructed at a time when community input and civic associations had a much greater role in development, leading to the low-density project that resulted.
Fast forward to 2026, and the zoning and density restrictions are wildly more liberal. Montgomery County government no longer listens to public input, civic associations, or even the once-decisive powers like Kenwood or the Columbia Country Club, having paid no price whatsoever at the ballot box for defying public or power-player opinion on matters like the Westbard sector plan, the Little Falls Parkway road diet and the Purple Line.
If you haven't noticed yet, the County has abandoned all of its "Smart Growth" propaganda pablum. Planners no longer regale attendees at community meetings with high-minded platitudes like "transit-oriented development," "quarter-to-half-a-mile from Metro," "eyes on the street," and "activate the streetscape." In 2014, the County said it just wanted the shopping centers for redevelopment. "We won't touch the neighborhoods." Ten years later, it announced it wouldn't just touch, but bulldoze the neighborhoods, with the County Council passage of Thrive Montgomery 2050.
No more dancing around. No more apologies.
Yet, at the Collection, there is not only the land to do something big, but the property is literally at a Metro station. And thanks to the County Council driving the rich to move to lower-tax jurisdictions in the region, Friendship Heights is in decline. As a result, CCLC would actually have a pretty solid basis upon which to argue for an ambitious revitalization project. It doesn't mean CCLC will do it. But the potential is there to go big, and ask for even bigger. It's not 2006 anymore, and the obstacles of public opinion and community that bedeviled developers then have been utterly vanquished over the succeeding two decades.
22 comments:
The Saks and adjacent north and south parking lots are being rezoned to allow up to100’ of building height. Quite a large site that could be lined with ten story high buildings.
I'd say end of an era but that done already been happened, eras ago.
It could be converted into a weed dispensary warehouse OR an ICE detainee facility OR better yet, a ubiquitous CVS!!!
“And thanks to the County Council driving the rich to move to lower-tax jurisdictions in the region”
Oh, please. You have never, ever, provided documentation of this.
3:35: I've not only provided documentation, I even detailed which counties they went to, and the specific amount of tax revenue they took with them to Fairfax, Loudoun, etc.
Damn, Friendship Heights has a chance to totally transform itself. The old Brooks Brothers Corner, GEICO, Lord and Taylor and now Saks ! That is 4 Mega opportunities to remake the area. It will be interesting to see what the next 10 years brings.
The Saks building is beautiful. I hope it’s preserved.
I vote for conversion into an indoor ice rink. Those windows alone are worth preserving.
I agree ... what about condos in a classic building?
EYA is going to build townhouses, one condo building and two apartment buildings on the GEICO property. Hopefully the Saks building will remain. It's beautiful.
Nail salon and vape shop
Yet Fairfax isn't doing so "fair" these day either Dr. Doom! What di you do go door to door surveying the residents?
It will become the new community center for the surrounding, new residential development. Perfect for hosting parties, weddings, and maybe even be used as a "Ballroom".
A building like that should be preserved.
I like the idea of a smoke shop similar to DTSS.
Data Center.
So why is the store in Tysons Galleria closing?
Heckuva job, Brownie :(
Love both community center and indoor ice rink
@9:46 AM - Huh?
Of course you like the idea of an ice rink or community center or some other less than useful proposition. YOU DON'T OWN THE LAND! You just want someone else to pay for what you want. The land is privately owned and is a horrendous use of valuable property. The cost to convert anything in that building will be huge and the owner should have the right to receive a return on their investment.
Maybe it's not such a bad idea if it would increase foot traffic. Enough people live around there, why is the streetscape so dead?
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