Iconic Beverly Hills Saks To Get Face-Lift, New Neighbors
HBC Properties and Investments plans to reinvigorate the iconic Saks Fifth Avenue store in Beverly Hills and the spaces immediately surrounding it, announcing a five-year redevelopment plan.
The plan involves transforming six parcels across two blocks around the existing Saks Fifth Avenue store on Wilshire Boulevard, adding apartments, office space and restaurants, the real estate and development arm of Saks parent company HBC announced in a release.
“About six years ago, I decided that we had to get involved ourselves” to help make Wilshire Boulevard a part of the Beverly Hills' storied shopping district and an attractive destination for pedestrians, HBC CEO Richard Baker told the Los Angeles Times.
The Beverly Hills Saks is HBC's second-most-profitable store, and the company sees this Saks location as a second flagship. But HBC was “really quite frustrated with what was happening on that end of town,” Baker told the LA Times.
What HBC has planned is a dramatic shake-up.
Right now, the sites contain the Saks Fifth Avenue building, built in 1938; a 1990s-era single-story addition that holds the shoe department at Saks; a former Barneys location, built in 1993 and vacant since 2020, when the store closed; and two surface parking lots.
HBC's plan would repurpose the Barneys building so Saks Fifth Avenue Women's could move in and restore the exterior of the 1930s-era Saks.
HBC will also build two Class-A office buildings — one on an empty property next to the Barneys and another where the one-story addition to Saks is now — for a total of 140K SF of office.
Apartments are planned on the two parking lots and remaining space would host restaurants and a membership club. New underground parking would also be part of the project.
The site is walking distance of a forthcoming Metro subway station, which is expected to open in 2025.
The makeover is planned as a way to reinvigorate the block and even inspire other property owners to follow suit.
“We want to be transformational and do the right thing for our neighbors and Saks Fifth Avenue,” Baker told the LA Times.
