Labor groups and residents are holding tight to a laundry list of concerns for the proposed redevelopment of the Saks Fifth Avenue building in Beverly Hills.
Multiple union representatives and several residents voiced concerns during Tuesday’s Beverly Hills Planning Commission special meeting. The gathering was a continuation of an over six-hour long meeting held May 1 on Streetworks Development’s proposal to breathe new life into the department store’s former women’s building.
No final decision came out of this week’s meeting, with the commission voting to continue the matter to July 24.
Project plans call for 76 apartments, a boutique hotel, spa, social club, about 64,000 square feet of retail and restaurants and 45,000 square feet of office. The developer estimates a 50-month timeline for the adaptive reuse project.
Douglas Adams, senior vice president of development at Saks Global, called the project a “catalyst for Wilshire Boulevard,” during this week’s meeting.
After more than 250 gatherings with the community, nearly 100 of which were individual talks with residents, Streetworks said it eliminated some of the office, added in more open space and agreed to provide two hours of free parking (which is standard in many of the lots in the immediate area).
Much of Tuesday’s critiques of the project centered on the anticipated traffic. Noise and environmental impact concerns were also raised. Meanwhile, some labor representatives expressed outright opposition to the project for not providing appropriate wages or benefits.
Competitive Set
As department stores wrestle with competition that includes faster-moving digital companies and brands that have focused on niche consumer groups, the idea of trying to be everything to everyone has fallen out of fashion.
Retail now is far different from 1938 when Saks Fifth Avenue opened its Beverly Hills store on Wilshire Boulevard as its West Coast flagship. Last year, the company relocated to the six-story building once occupied by Barneys New York, which closed in 2020.
Its new, 130,000-square-foot space includes private style suites called the Fifth Avenue Club, a ground floor shoe department and other branded, boutique-like departments throughout the rest of the store.
A plan for the redevelopment of the original Saks building was revealed in 2022 before more than 100 community members.
Streetworks was the real estate division of Hudson’s Bay Company, which began liquidating its retail business in March. Streetworks and other non-retail businesses under Hudson’s Bay Company were then spun off to be part of a new parent called Saks Global.
The Streetworks proposal for Saks is not the only one pumping major capital into Beverly Hills.
Cain International is investing $5 billion for the mixed-use One Beverly Hills project, which will include the first Aman-branded ultra-luxury condos, hotel and Aman Club. There will also be about 10 acres of gardens and other open space, retail and restaurants. The existing Beverly Hilton and Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills comprise the rest of the complex.
The massive projects speak to the shift taking place as cities such as Beverly Hills and Century City see development money flood in through upscale projects. Meanwhile, other city centers such as downtown Los Angeles continue a cycle of false starts in its renaissance.
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