Neiman Marcus Saga

City of Dallas obtains mystery land deed for downtown Neiman Marcus

Fancy Christmas tree from holiday season past inside Neiman Marcus

Neiman Marcus

There's a new chapter in the ongoing breakup saga between the city of Dallas and Neiman Marcus, the luxury retailer which is closing its longtime location in downtown Dallas at the end of March.

When Neiman Marcus parent company Saks Global announced its decision to close the store, they attributed it to a dispute with one of the landlords, regarding a small parcel of land on which the store resides.

According to a release, the city of Dallas now has the deed for that property in its possession, which it is willing to donate to Neiman Marcus, and is hoping this will persuade Neiman Marcus to stay, please please stay.

The release says that members of the Dallas Consortium for the Downtown Neiman Marcus — a group that includes downtown developer Shawn Todd of Todd Interests, Dallas City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, and members of Downtown Dallas, Inc., the advocacy group for downtown — plan to meet with Saks Global executives to discuss the future of the store.

Tolbert says the City is now in possession of the deed for the Slaughter property that was at the root of Saks Global’s decision to close the store.

“I want to thank the Dallas Consortium for the Downtown Neiman Marcus for their continued efforts to ensure ongoing operations of the Downtown flagship store," Tolbert says. "The City of Dallas now officially holds the special warranty deed for the parcel that Saks Global Properties said was needed to keep Neiman Marcus’ Downtown store open."

Downtown Neiman Marcus Neiman Marcus has already removed the signage from its downtown Dallas location.Photo courtesy of C. Troy Mathis

“I also want to thank the Slaughter family for their donation, and their desire to preserve the prosperity that this iconic brand contributes to Downtown’s vibrancy," Tolbert says in the release. "With the deed documents now in hand, I am looking forward to hosting Saks Global Properties and Investments CEO Ian Putman and his team on Wednesday morning at City Hall."

Dallas and Saks Global have been engaged in a back-and-forth over the future of the store.

On February 18, Saks Global announced its intent to close the store.
On February 25, downtown leaders rallied to try and prevent Neiman Marcus from closing.
On February 26, the owner of the piece of land which Saks Global said had been a problem committed to donate the land.
On February 27, Saks Global said it would be closing the store regardless. In fact, they've already removed signage from the building.

Since the dispute began, statements from the city have generally been met by responses from Saks Global, with the back-and-forth playing out in the public sphere on websites like CultureMap Dallas. Which is to say that there may well be something forthcoming from Saks Global soon.

UPDATE 3-4-2025: Saks responded with a statement saying that "the Dallas Consortium’s ongoing tactic of using the press to pressure us into changing our strategy in Dallas is highly unproductive. Even after our corrections to their previous false statements, they continue to go to the press, making inaccurate claims. Our decision to close the Neiman Marcus Downtown Dallas store is final and we are moving forward as such."

The statement calls it a "far more complicated situation than what the public is being led to believe and has been going on for more than a decade. While we had been willing to hear the Consortium’s perspective, a meeting was not confirmed. We have made several attempts to be connected directly to the City Manager, as an official representative of the City of Dallas, and we were denied."

"We are committed to growth, and are focused on Neiman Marcus’ future in Dallas. That future is at the NorthPark store, where we are planning a $100 million renovation."

downtown

Hottest Headlines of 2025

Popular suburbs move into Dallas' hottest real estate headlines of 2025

Photo courtesy of City of McKinney

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Editor's note: As the year comes to a close, we look back at the 10 most-read real estate stories in Dallas for 2025 — including new honors for several local suburbs, market trends, and all-important Walmart news. These are the 10 hottest real estate headlines of 2025 in Dallas:

1. Dallas-Fort Worth suburb blooms as No. 1 best place to live in U.S. One Dallas-area city took the top slot on a list of "the 100 Best Places to Live in 2025." The list — from relocation marketing platform Livability.com — put Flower Mound at No. 1 for its appealing size and affordability. The suburb also claimed the No. 7 spot in a ranking of America's most livable small cities.

2. North Dallas neighbor ranks as No. 1 most affordable city in U.S. A Dallas suburb landed on top of a list of the most affordable places to live: McKinney ranked No. 1 based on its relative cost of living and high median household income.

3. Massive mixed-use development coming to key intersection in McKinney. McKinney is getting a new $1.3 billion mixed-use development. Called Long Branch, it will be a 155-acre project at the northwest corner of US-75 and the future 380 bypass, consisting of housing, retail, office, grocery, and hospitality. The development has 80 acres slated for active development, and will unfold over the next decade in four tracts.

4. Dallas-area suburb ranks as 3rd best place to live in Texas in 2025. The Dallas-Fort Worth mid-city of Coppell has been ranked the third best place to live in Texas in 2025 by rankings and review website Niche.com. The survey determined the best places to live in based on crime rates, public school rankings, the local cost of living, job opportunities, and more using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the FBI, and others.

Coppell, Dallas suburb Coppell was ranked the third-best place to live in Texas for 2025. City of Coppell, TX Municipal Government/Facebook

5. 11 Dallas suburbs soar as fastest-growing U.S. cities in last decade. It's no secret that Dallas-Fort Worth's population is growing faster than most other metros in the U.S., but now several surprising Dallas neighbors have been named among the top 10 fastest-growing suburb nationwide over the last decade. Celina nearly led the nation with an astonishing 314 percent increase in population from 2014 to 2023, according to a growth study by marketplace platform StorageCafe.

6. Dallas neighbor is the No. 1 fastest-growing affordable city in U.S. A national study has declared Texas is home to the most affordable, fast-growing cities in the country, with Dallas suburb Frisco taking the lead at No. 1. Frisco and five more Dallas neighbors ranked high on GoBankingRates.com's list of "50 Most Affordable, Fastest-Growing Cities in 2025."

$Millennials moved to Texas more than any other state in 2019, with Frisco being\na top choice.$ Frisco is the most-affordable, fastest-growing city in the country. Photo by Roger Robinson/Visit Frisco

7. Dallas neighbor beckons movers as top U.S. suburb with small-town feel. Wylie, a city less than 30 miles from downtown Dallas, ranked as the No. 7 most highly sought-after U.S. suburb of 2025 in MoveBuddha's national survey. In addition to being recognized as the 7th most desirable American suburb, Wylie also ranked as the second-most desirable suburb to move to in Texas.

8. 2 Dallas neighbors rank among fastest-growing wealthy suburbs in U.S. Celina and Prosper, two boomtowns north of Dallas, are among the top three fastest growing affluent suburbs in the country. The cities' affluent status was unveiled in a GoBankingRates' study ranking the "30 Fastest-Growing Wealthy Suburbs in America" for 2025.

The Old Celina Park in Celina, Texas Celina is the No. 2 fastest-growing wealthy 'burb in America. Photo courtesy of celina-tx.gov

9. 6 Dallas suburbs make top 10 list of best Texas cities to move to. Advisors at ConsumerAffairs, a customer review and news platform, ranked the 50 most populated Texas cities across five main categories — affordability, safety, economy, health care and education, and quality of life — to determine which were the best places to move to. Each city was given a score out of 100 possible points. Four of the top five best places to move to in Texas are located in Dallas-Fort Worth: Allen (No .1), Frisco (No. 2), Plano (No. 3), and McKinney (No. 4). Two more DFW suburbs, Mansfield (No. 6) and Richardson (No. 10), rounded out the top 10.

10. Booming Celina hits the big time with its first Walmart Supercenter. The city of Celina is getting its first mega Walmart: According to a release, it will be a Walmart Supercenter located at the northwest corner of Preston Road (Highway 289) and the West Outer Loop. The store has been in the works for a few years, but the Celina Economic Development Corporation celebrated the opening in a groundbreaking on April 16.