BEVERLY HILLS : Saks to Expand Onto Adjacent I. Magnin Site

After spending years looking to enlarge its Beverly Hills store, Saks Fifth Avenue this week announced plans to acquire the neighboring I. Magnin site and create a Saks West Coast flagship store on Wilshire Boulevard.

The acquisition would give Saks an additional 100,000 square feet of retail space next to its 160,000-square-foot Beverly Hills store. The former I. Magnin building is scheduled to be remodeled primarily as a men’s store, Saks officials said.

“We’ve wanted for a long time to have a West Coast flagship operation,” said Tom Voltin, general manager of the Beverly Hills Saks, adding that the company has always looked for that opportunity in Beverly Hills.

Saks has announced it will take over I. Magnin store sites in San Diego, Carmel and Phoenix, Ariz. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Last month, R.H. Macy & Co. said it would phase out its 12-store I. Magnin chain. Later the company announced that Macy’s would convert five of the locations to either Bullock’s or Macy’s stores and sell off the seven remaining sites.

“It was amazing that the I. Magnin space became available when we were trying everything we could to expand our store in Beverly Hills,” Voltin said. Renovations will begin after I. Magnin closes its doors in January, he said, adding that the renovated store will open in August.

City officials said they are pleased Saks will take over the marble-fronted I. Magnin store.

“This is wonderful for the city, because it sounds like there is little lag time between I. Magnin’s closure and its reopening as Saks,” said Beverly Hills Mayor Vicki Reynolds.

Last year, New York-based retailer Barneys New York opened its own glamorous 125,000-square-foot flagship store on Wilshire Boulevard, a block east of the Saks building.

Beverly Hills is also expecting Bloomingdale’s to build its premier West Coast store on Beverly Drive, just blocks from the row of department stores lining Wilshire Boulevard.