(Ian Ritter is national online editor for GlobeSt.com/RETAIL.)

SHANGHAI-Saks Fifth Avenue is looking to open a store here as well as the Chinese territory of Macau, near Hong Kong. New York City-based Saks Fifth, which is a division of Saks Inc., of Birmingham, AL, is partnering with Roosevelt China Investments Corp. to look for store sites in the two areas.

Saks management expects the first store to open in 2008, in Shanghai's Bund district, off the Huangpu River. The unit will be 300,000 sf over four floors and will have similar products to the chain's US department stores.

The China expansion follows a push by Saks in the Middle East, where it opened a store in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2001; and a Dubai location in 2004. "While our primary focus remains on our domestic stores, the opening of carefully chosen licensed locations abroad can extend the reach of our brand and generate an incremental income stream for Saks," says Stephen Sadove, Saks' chief executive officer, in a statement.