Malls ponder retail life after Filene's

Three Filene's stores will close in Boston's western suburbs this year, sparking a reshuffling at the Solomon Pond Mall in Marlborough, the Natick Mall, and the Mall at Chestnut Hill.

Filene's, a regional retail icon that dates to the 19th century, is a casualty of last year's merger between its owner, the May Department Stores Co., and Federated Department Stores Inc., which owns Macy's, Bloomingdale's, and several other store chains. After the deal, Federated announced that its Filene's stores would be converted to Macy's stores or closed.

Some corporate-level changes, not expected to affect shoppers, are slated to begin next month, said Federated spokesman Jim Sluzewski. All the Filene's stores are expected to be converted or closed by fall.

A straightforward conversion from Filene's to a Macy's store is slated for Solomon Pond, which is also anchored by JC Penney and Sears.

At the Natick Mall, which has both Filene's and Macy's, the anticipated shifts are more complicated. The Filene's is to close, and Macy's will move into the vacant space. The time frame for those changes has not been determined, Sluzewski said, but will likely be by the fall. Federated is still negotiating the sale of its properties and the termination of its leases, he said.

But Jim Grant, vice president of development for General Growth Properties Inc., which owns the Natick Mall, said the lease for the Macy's space has been terminated, which leaves the mall to look for new stores. The mall is considering four retail tenants, Grant said, and hopes to have a decision by spring.

''There's a lot of interest in that store," said Grant.

The Natick Mall also is anchored by Sears and Lord & Taylor, the latter of which also became a part of Federated after the merger. Sluzewski said the future of the Lord & Taylor chain of stores is still being studied by Federated.

Meanwhile, the Natick Mall is moving forward with an expansion that will make room for high-end retailers Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom, as well as more than 200 condominiums, in a project slated for completion in the fall of 2007.

The Filene's space at Chestnut Hill will be taken over by the high-end Bloomingdale's, rather than a Macy's, Sluzewski said.

The mall already is home to a Bloomingdale's, which sells home goods and men's apparel; a second Bloomingdale's, which sells women's apparel, sits across the parking lot from the mall building. Sluzewski said Bloomingdale's is slated to have two locations inside the mall, and Federated is evaluating plans for the free-standing space.

Les Morris, a spokesman for Simon Property Group Inc., which owns the Solomon Pond Mall and the Mall at Chestnut Hill, said he had no information on the impending changes at those malls.

At some locations that feature Filene's and Macy's, Federated will hold going-out-of-business sales before closing Filene's, Sluzewski said. A sale is slated to begin at the Filene's at Downtown Crossing in Boston on Jan. 29.

Mike Tesler, a Norwell-based retail industry consultant, said consumers are not likely to notice many differences between Filene's and Macy's, since both stores carry similar merchandise. But he did note that the community has lost another popular company with local roots.

''We're losing some personality as a region," said Tesler, whose company is called Retail Concepts.

Malls have lost business to big-box discount stores like Target, Tesler said. And big-box stores aren't interested in moving to malls because they lose some independence and can't set their own hours. As a result, he said, mall owners are becoming more creative in the ways they fill space, looking at options such as adding residential components, as at the Natick Mall, and expanding entertainment options.