It's official: Filene's brand will be gone
Boston will lose one of its most famous brands next year when Federated Department Stores Inc. turns all remaining Filene's into Macy's and closes about a dozen stores in New England, including the flagship in Downtown Crossing where Filene's began in 1890.
The move comes as Federated completes its $17 billion merger with Filene's parent company, May Department Stores Co., and attempts to position Macy's even more broadly as a national department store.
In Downtown Crossing, where there is a Macy's and Filene's, the company will keep only one store, Macy's, Federated chairman Terry J. Lundgren said in an interview yesterday. The company has not decided whether Macy's would remain in its current space or move to the vacated Filene's location.
''We will need more time," Lundgren said.
Federated, which also owns Bloomingdale's, said it does not plan to put another one of its brands into Downtown Crossing.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino said yesterday that he hopes Macy's moves into the Filene's building and a new retailer, possibly Target Co., would then move into the Macy's site. Menino said he prefers ''marrying Macy's to the Filene's building" in part because of the heavy foot traffic from Filene's Basement. Filene's Basement, which has a long-term lease in the Filene's building, was long ago sold off to another company and is not affected by the Federated-May merger.
Across the country, Federated will replace all of May Co.'s regional names, including Hecht's, Kaufmann's, and Strawbridge's, with the Macy's moniker by the fall of 2006. Federated will also close 68 stores -- Macy's, Filene's, and other regional stores -- which accounted for about $2 billion in sales last year and currently employ 13,477 people. The combined company will have about 950 stores.
Federated, of Cincinnati, has not determined how many jobs will be eliminated in the merger but expects to employ all management personnel in good standing and to offer positions to the vast majority of associates working at locations slated to close. But Massachusetts will potentially suffer the third highest number of job losses -- with 1,264 positions at stake -- behind Pennsylvania and California.
In addition to the Downtown Crossing Filene's, the other Massachusetts stores that will be closed are at: the Burlington Mall, South Shore Plaza in Braintree, Westgate Mall in Brockton, Natick Mall, Northshore Mall in Peabody, and a Cape Cod home store in Hyannis. These stores are closing in malls that already have a Macy's.
Aside from the stores Federated plans to divest, the company is also considering converting a small number of remaining stores to the upscale Bloomingdale's brand.
For now, May's Lord & Taylor chain is the only one unaffected by the latest changes, but at least one mall operator interviewed said the company is considering selling off the entire brand.
''My conversations with them in the last couple of weeks [indicate] that they might spin off the Lord & Taylor chain and sell it," said Jim Grant, vice president of development at General Growth Properties Inc. in Chicago, which operates malls in Natick and Portland, Maine, that have Macy's, Filene's, and Lord & Taylor.
Federated's Lundgren said the company has not made any decision on the future of Lord & Taylor and it still needs to do more research on the brand.
In the meantime, some shoppers lament the loss of Filene's -- the latest in a series of Boston icons to be eliminated because of corporate consolidation. Over the past few years, bigger out-of-state companies have swallowed FleetBoston and John Hancock Financial Services, and soon Gillette.
"Boston is disappearing," said Margaret Chisholm, 55, who has been a loyal Filene's shopper for the past half-century.
At the Burlington Mall, Chisholm said Macy's, which started in New York, isn't comparable to the New England chain. ''Macy's has never felt like a Boston store. There just seems to be an indifference there. It's too big, it's cluttered, it's almost brash. It's like New York," she said.
Paul S. Grogan, president of the Boston Foundation, said the dissolution of Filene's is just another marker of the old Boston that is fading away. ''This is more personal, more poignant, because so many people have a connection to Filene's," he said. ''I mean, who hasn't been to Filene's in Boston?"
Lundgren said he had reservations about getting rid of the Filene's name, but ultimately decided it's not well-known outside New England. ''It's a good brand," he said, ''but it's not expandable."
Filene's was started in 1890 when William Filene, a German immigrant, opened a five-story building selling fancy goods and women's apparel in downtown Boston. The store moved to its present location on Washington Street in 1912 and over the next few decades expanded throughout New England. In 1988, May Department Stores bought the Filene's chain.
The merger of Federated and May is expected to close this fall pending the completion of regulatory review. But already retailers and city officials are eager to fill the empty department storefront in Downtown Crossing.
An executive of Markley Group, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Macy's could choose to sublease the space if it moves into Filene's building. Markley has a long-term lease with Macy's on about half of the building's lower floors.
The executive said there has been no discussion of leasing space to Target. Menino said yesterday that the chic discounter ''might be interested." Target spokeswoman Paula Thornton-Greear said: ''Target is interested in Boston; it is a dynamic city. However, we are not in negotiations for Downtown Crossing."
Lisa Wangsness and Doug Belkin of the Globe staff and Globe correspondent Nathan Hurst contributed to this report. Jenn Abelson can be reached at abelson@globe.com. 
