Iconic off-price retailer Loehmann's returning with Long Island pop-up

Loehmann’s is making a comeback — for a limited time.

The iconic New York-based off-price retailer, which closed its 39 remaining stores in 2014, plans to open pop-up stores across the country, starting with Tanger Outlets Deer Park.

The 8,000-square-foot pop-up warehouse store will operate from Aug. 22 to Sept. 1 at 152 The Arches Circle, where it will sell adult clothing, shoes and accessories for up to 70% off the original retail prices.

In 2020, Loehmann’s intellectual property, including its name, was bought by off-price retailer Century 21, which is behind the pop-ups.

The Deer Park pop-up will be a prototype that will help determine in what direction Loehmann’s will go in the future, Century 21’s chief operating officer Larry Mentzer told Newsday on Tuesday.

“I think as we’re trying to reintroduce a reimagined Loehmann’s, we have a lot to learn … The market is different. The brand is different. Consumers are different," Mentzer said. "And by coming back with a pop-up versus a permanent store, it really helps us test and learn and tweak the reimagined Loehmann’s before any kind of decisions are made about permanent stores or anything else,” he said.

Century 21’s partner in the pop-up concept is Manhattan-based luxury goods distributor Icon Luxury Group, which holds the licensing for several high-end brands, including Armani and Roberto Cavalli, and will pick the merchandise for the Loehmann’s pop-up.

Icon found the Deer Park location and is looking at other possible pop-up sites in New York and Florida, Mentzer said.

There are no plans to open permanent Loehmann’s stores at this point, he said.

“But, again, based on what we learn through this pop-up strategy and consumer response, anything is possible,” he said.

The pop-up in Deer Park will have a “Back Room” with discounted unique, luxury items, a feature that legacy Loehmann’s stores were known for.

The Loehmann’s chain was known for carrying designer clothing brands at discounted prices but was challenged by growing competition from other off-price retailers, such as T.J. Maxx and Marshalls.

Today’s Loehmann’s will be positioned differently than most mainstream off-price stores because it will focus on emerging and recognizable designer brands, Mentzer said.

Loehmann’s was founded in Brooklyn in 1921 by Frieda Loehmann.

By 1988, Loehmann’s was headquartered in the Bronx and had 82 stores in 26 states, including five stores on Long Island.

Changing retail landscape

The pop-up concept, coupled with Loehmann’s strong name recognition, makes sense for the brand, s aid Marshal Cohen, chief retail adviser in the Port Washington office of Circana, a Chicago-based market research firm.

“People like to be able to have … some heritage and some trust behind” a name, he said.

Loehmann’s was a trailblazer that shifted from acquiring manufacturers’ close-out merchandise from previous seasons to, by the 1980s, working directly with manufacturers to get current seasons’ clothing made specifically for the retailer, he said. 

Cohen is a former president of the WilliWear and Adrienne Vittadini clothing brands who used to sell merchandise to Loehmann’s.

As off-price retailers such as T.J. Maxx and Marshalls grew — and began to offer a higher-quality selection of merchandise in nicer stores — no-frills Loehmann’s struggled to find its footing, he said.

Changing hands

The business struggled for years due to heavy debts from a leveraged buyout in 1988 and significant expansion in the 1980s and 1990s, Newsday reported in 1999.

After the death of major family members, Loehmann’s was bought by Associated Dry Goods in 1983. May Department Stores Co. bought Associated and its stores, including Lord & Taylor, in 1986.

Two years later, May sold the 77-store chain to an investor group led by Sefinco Ltd., a New York investment affiliate of a Spain-based construction and engineering company.

Loehmann's Inc. went public in 1996.

Atlanta-based private equity investment firm Crescent Capital Investments Inc. bought the company for $177 million in 2004, when it had 48 stores in 17 states, and took it private again.

Loehmann’s filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection three times between 1999 and 2013.

The retailer attributed the last bankruptcy filing to its having limited access to capital and increased competition from off-price retailers. It closed its remaining 39 stores in 11 states in 2014.