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FIELD’S FINAL BOW

Federated will put Macy’s stamp on the revered Chicago landmark in September

By Molly Knight

Federated Department Stores may be hoping Chicagoans will forgive and forget its decision to kill the 150-year-old Marshall Field’s brand. The latest step in its strategy to win over locals is to add valet parking and other luxury features to the State Street landmark — which will be renamed Macy’s at State Street in September. All 61 existing Marshall Field’s stores will convert to the Macy’s nameplate at that time. The stores are in the Dakotas, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.

Last month Macy’s North, a division of Federated, announced plans for an extensive rehabilitation of the store, to be completed next year. Refurbishments will “include the return of revered traditions” and “commemoration of Marshall Field’s heritage,” according to a press release. “Macy’s at State Street is one of the most elegant department stores in the world, and it will continue to be the grandest store in Chicago,” said Terry Lundgren, Federated’s chairman, president and CEO, in the announcement. “We are fully committed to keeping the legacy of this store alive and making this great store even better for Chicagoans and visitors alike.”

Federated, which gained control of Marshall Field’s through its purchase of May Department Stores last year, says it will reopen the building’s entrance on 28 E. Washington St., where a doorman will once again man his post and a private elevator will be available to shoppers who want to go straight to the store’s upscale designer floor called “Shop 28.” The retailer has also pledged to resume such holiday traditions as the 45-foot-tall Great Tree that once graced the store’s Walnut Room.

The 10-level building’s exterior will undergo a four-year cleaning and restoration of the first three floors. Macy’s signage and canopies will be added, and exterior fire doors will be covered with decorative wire-glass panels. Windows will be refurbished in three-floor increments through 2009. Inside the store, Federated will add price-check scanners, fitting-room vestibules with waiting lounges and plasma video screens, enhanced women’s lounges and improved in-store signage. The Macy’s logo will pop up in advertisements and on proprietary credit cards starting this summer.

For all the changes, Federated isn’t asking Chicagoans to forget the past. The retailer says it will donate the Marshall Field’s archives to the Chicago History Museum and rotate historic Marshall Field’s exhibits at the State Street store.

“The essence of what made this store so special will remain and grow as Macy’s through our long-standing traditions and exclusive offerings,” said Ralph Hughes, regional vice president of stores for Macy’s North.

In addition, Federated plans to keep the Frango tradition alive. Marshall Field’s acquired the maker of Frango mint chocolates in 1929, and the popular candies became part and parcel of the Marshall Field’s brand. Now, the company says, seventh-floor visitors will be able to watch the chocolates being made and to patronize a dessert café and a Frango merchandise boutique.

Federated is committed to enhancing the store’s exclusivity, too, saying it has added more high-end apparel to help make Macy’s at State Street the source for high fashion in Chicago. Federated plans to open Badgley Mischka Couture, Bill Blass and Vera Wang apparel shops. A Chicago Designers Shop is scheduled to open in September, and there will be in-store boutiques for such brands as Free People, Lush and Lacoste.

Not everyone is happy, though. Some say these nods to nostalgia do not cancel out the damage done by renaming the famed store and replacing the building’s trademark green awnings with black ones. “There’s been a visceral reaction at a grassroots level,” said Bruce Kaplan, president of Chicago-based Northern Realty Group. “Marshall Field’s is more than just a brand — it’s been woven into the city’s psyche. It would be like someone buying the Yankees and then changing their name to the Vikings and expecting New Yorkers not to get upset.”

From a business perspective, says Kaplan, Macy’s is making these changes to push brand awareness further and establish itself in the Windy City. The department store chain hopes to eventually win over Chicagoans, he says, as it has done with fans of Burdine’s, the Florida brand it killed last year. But the company is underestimating citizens’ civic loyalty, he cautions.

“This city has a lot of pride, and this was Chicago’s very own department store,” said Kaplan. “Folks like to wax poetic about what it was like to go down to Marshall Field’s with mom and dad before Christmas and see the windows all lit up with their magical displays. If you were to stop a random guy on the street and ask him about this, he’d say it was a sad day for Chicago.”

In addition to the name change, it is the little things — like replacing the traditional green Marshall Field’s bags and awnings — that have upset those citizens who are resistant to change. “Changing the awnings to black is heresy,” said Kaplan. “Macy’s better be careful, because they’re burning 100 years of tradition, and it may come back to hurt them.”

Though the buyout was inevitable, Macy’s should have kept the Marshall Field’s name, Kaplan insists. “In my opinion, it should have stayed that way forever.”