Affluent beachgoers and residents in Puerto Rico will have one of their retail staples on the island next year, when a 100,000-square-foot, full-line Saks Fifth Avenue will open in March at the upcoming Mall of San Juan, being built by Taubman Centers and also featuring Nordstrom.
The store will introduce a number of designers to the island and like the New York City flagship feature an expanded shoe department. Also look for an expanded menswear presentation and fine dining.
“Saks Fifth Avenue Puerto Rico is quite an exciting venture for Saks Fifth Avenue,” said Saks President Marigay McKee, in the announcement. ≤https://finance.yahoo.com/news/saks-fifth-avenue-open-store-203500493.html>. “The San Juan metro area has a very unique, under-retailed market, and we are thrilled to offer the high fashion conscious consumer Saks Fifth Avenue's elite selection of designer fashion and merchandise.”
Saks is on a growth binge, expanding its Off 5th division and even bringing a second store to Manhattan. And Saks is not new to retail outside the 50 U.S. states. The company already has five international licensed stores, in Dubai, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Mexico City and Polanco, Mexico. And it was an original licensed tenant at Kingdom Centre in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, exiting in 2012.
Meanwhile, Puerto Rico has been working hard to draw wealthy mainlanders, passing Acts 20 and 22, laws that eliminate taxes on capital gains and income from local businesses for residents in 2012. More than 250 individual investors had applied for the programs as of late June of this year, according to a Bloomberg story. This isn't paradise, yet: Unemployment (13.5 percent in August, according to the Government Development Bank for Puerto Rico) remains an issue, as does security.
But Saks is clearly thinking ahead.
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