- March 24, 2026
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In an unusual twist, the Saks Fifth Avenue at The Mall at University Town Center in Sarasota is no longer closing.
New York-based Saks Global, the parent company of Saks, confirmed the news in an email to the Business Observer on Tuesday afternoon. The email follows questions to the company from the Business Observer stemming from social media posts from former Saks employees saying the decision to shutter had been reversed. A Saks Global spokesperson says the store renegotiated its lease with the owner of the mall, Simon. (East Manatee County-based Benderson Development built the mall in 2014 in a partnership with Taubman; Indianapolis-based mall and entertainment center owner Simon acquired Taubman in a deal that closed in 2025.)
“We are pleased to share that our Saks Fifth Avenue Sarasota store will remain open following recent productive conversations with our landlords and further evaluation,” the Saks Global spokesperson writes in the note. “Our approach to optimizing our footprint remains centered on ensuring we focus our presence in markets with a high concentration of luxury shoppers where we can operate at an attractive level of profitability. We look forward to continuing to serve customers in the Sarasota community."
Saks Global had included the UTC store in a list released March 6 of a dozen stores it was closing, part of a company-wide move to shutter locations in the wake of a January bankruptcy filing. With holdings that include Saks 5th Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Off 5th, Last Call and Horchow, Saks Global reported it had between $1 billion and $10 billion in debt when it filed for bankruptcy Jan. 13 in Houston.
The 80,000-square-foot UTC Saks location is one of three anchors at the mall, which opened in October 2014. The other anchors are a 160,000-square-foot Macy’s and 180,000-square-foot Dillard’s. The two-story Saks occupies a prime spot in the middle of the mall, across from the high-traffic Apple store and near the Cheesecake Factory.
