Shreve is closing Chestnut Hill store
Failed lease talks end 30-year run at mall
Renowned Boston jeweler Shreve, Crump & Low is shuttering its store in Chestnut Hill after lease negotiations broke down with mall operator Simon Property Group.
Shreve, which has had a shop in the Mall at Chestnut Hill for 30 years, began its consolidation sale on Saturday and plans to close the store by February. That will leave only the flagship location on Boylston Street in the Back Bay.
David Walker, owner of Shreve and a second jewelry shop, David & Co., in Chestnut Hill, said Simon wanted to increase rents about 40 to 50 percent and he could not afford to stay, particularly as sales have slowed 10 percent in recent months. Walker said he hopes to transfer a majority of the 22 employees working at the Chestnut Shreve to the downtown location and to his David & Co. shop.
"It's very challenging out there. We're looking to reduce our overhead, streamline, and run a more compact and efficient company," Walker said yesterday.
The Chestnut Hill closing comes just two years after Walker purchased Shreve out of bankruptcy and promised to restore the luster to the storied company, which traces its roots to a 1796 store across the street from Paul Revere's silversmith shop in Boston. After liquidators held a sale to clear out the old Shreve's inventory in 2007, Walker shuttered both stores for renovation and amassed more than $10 million in jewels, antiques, and other goods.
"I was so excited in that first year and overstocked with millions of dollars of too much inventory," Walker said. "I need to lower my inventory levels."
The planned closure comes at a tough time for jewelers and mall operators across the country as they are hit hard by a slowdown in consumer spending. A rash of retail bankruptcies and store closures has left gaping holes at shopping centers and more are expected following the holiday season, according to retail analysts. Simon's mall operator rival, General Growth Properties, which runs Faneuil Hall and the Natick Collection, is considering bankruptcy as it faces millions of dollars of debt that are coming due.
At the Mall at Chestnut Hill, a relatively small shopping center, Shreve's closing will make at least the third vacancy, and at roughly 6,000 square feet, possibly the largest hole in a mall filled with other struggling merchants, including Talbots and J. Jill. Temporarily, a calendar shop is occupying one vacancy during the holidays, and another large shop has been empty for at least several months around the corner from Shreve.
Walker said it was only after he informed Simon Property he planned to leave Chestnut Hill that the mall offered to let Shreve stay at the current rent. But by then, Shreve had already planned the consolidation sale and it was too late.
"Simon has been actively negotiating with Shreve, Crump & Low for a considerable period of time. We are certainly disappointed that we have been unable to reach an agreement on terms for a new lease," Bob Wodogaza, manager for the Mall at Chestnut Hill, said in a statement yesterday.
"While Shreve, Crump & Low has made a business decision to potentially leave the center, we are confident in our ability to attract and retain other high quality stores as seen recently with the addition of the first Cusp by Neiman Marcus in New England, which opened this fall, and Kate Spade that just opened in November."
Simon declined to comment on its vacancy rates.
"The Mall at Chestnut Hill is going through a tough period like all centers are," said Mike Tesler, president of Retail Concepts, a consulting firm in Norwell. "All centers are having to negotiate from a weaker position as leases come due and owners are having to grant concessions and take lower rents than they would have last year. They have less leverage and less options because stores have slowed expansion plans, gone bankrupt, or are just staying put so if someone leaves, there is no longer waiting lists of stores looking to come in."
Jenn Abelson can be reached at abelson@globe.com. 