Lord & Taylor closing Woodfield, Northbrook Court stores

Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg will face the first vacancy among its anchoring department stores in its 49-year history when the Lord & Taylor there becomes one of the chain's last two Illinois locations to shut down.

As Lord & Taylor continues to reorganize under bankruptcy court protection, it announced both its Woodfield Mall and Northbrook Court locations have begun store-closing sales.

Information on when both stores will close for good wasn't immediately available Friday.

Schaumburg Economic Development Director Matt Frank said village officials have so far heard very little apart from the fact that Simon Property Group, which owns Woodfield Mall, had been working on a deal to try to get Lord & Taylor to remain.

The anchor stores at Woodfield Mall, which also include Macy's, Sears, JCPenney and Nordstrom, own their properties rather than leasing from Simon.

While the decision about the Woodfield location was made this week, Lord & Taylor had earlier announced plans to shutter its location at Northbrook Court in Northbrook.

Northbrook Court has a bit more history of rebuilding and replacement among its anchor stores, but Tom Poupard, the village of Northbrook's development and planning services director, said the retail industry is in a far different place now than on any previous occasions.

Though the village has been in regular contact with Brookfield Properties, which manages Northbrook Court, there's been no word about an immediate replacement for Lord & Taylor, Poupard said.

"The retail world is evolving so quickly, I think it's a good idea they haven't locked into anything," he said. "I think it's an opportunity in a way. We've all been following the Lord & Taylor saga for the last year. It's no surprise that the other shoe dropped. It's an opportunity, but it's a loss."

Poupard added that the whole philosophy about what draws people to a shopping center is changing.

"There's all these new retail models," he said. "Who would ever think that an Apple store, which is a store inside the mall, would be an anchor there?"

The suburbs lost Lord & Taylor stores at Oakbrook Center in Oak Brook in January 2019 and at Westfield Old Orchard Mall in Skokie in April 2018. Lord & Taylor's corporate office did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

The Woodfield and Northbrook Court locations jointly stated online that they are no longer able to accept returns from in-store purchases and can no longer honor coupons, mall certificates, Lord & Taylor Reward/Award cards or prices offered at any other Lord & Taylor in the country remaining open.

The Northbrook Court store stopped accepting online returns Aug. 14 while the Woodfield store has set that deadline for Aug. 31, according to the website.