The official end of the French department store chain Galeries Lafayette in the capital came as little surprise on Wednesday evening. The owner of the magnificent glass building on Berlin’s Friedrichstrasse, the US real estate developer Tishman Speyer, had repeatedly ruled out extending the rental agreement beyond 2024. Berlin’s Senator for Culture Joe Chialo (CDU) has already pushed forward plans for subsequent use of the building. The company has now also confirmed that it will end at the end of 2024.
“Today’s announcement to close the store is a consequence of changing consumer habits in Germany and significant changes in the city’s retail market,” said Galeries Lafayette. The retail crisis does not stop at a luxury department store – one of the French chain’s few branches outside its home country. 190 employees now face an uncertain professional future.
Trade has no answer to online trading
Stationary retail has not yet found a conclusive answer to the fact that more and more people are shopping online. The most prominent victim of this development so far has been the department store chain Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof, which belongs to the Austrian Signa Holding. In Berlin alone, two of twelve locations will close at the end of January. Galeria has gone through insolvency proceedings, as a result of which numerous branches of the Essen department store group have to close. Around 90 of the previous 129 houses will remain. Thousands of jobs are being lost.
Now Galeries Lafayette also has to give up. Along with the KaDeWe in the west of Berlin, it is one of the most famous luxury addresses in the capital and, to this day, primarily a tourist magnet. “We are very concerned about our member’s decision, but also with understanding, because it is an expression of the tense situation in Berlin’s retail sector,” said Managing Director Nils Busch-Petersen of the German Press Agency.
Berlin’s Senator for Economic Affairs Franziska Giffey (SPD) also expressed her regret at the now announced end. “The department store was an attraction on Friedrichstrasse for 27 years,” she said when asked. “We are now supporting the efforts of the Berlin-Brandenburg trade association to be able to offer the employees of Galeries Lafayette a perspective.”
Whether Galeria or the Galeries: the question of subsequent use always arises for the properties of department store chains. Classic department store concepts of this size no longer work. From the unions’ perspective, the Galeria department store on Berlin’s Müllerstrasse in the Wedding district, which is about to close, also leaves a social void in the neighborhood. After an architectural competition, there are plans for a new usage concept with a mix of shopping, offices, apartments and neighborhood offerings. The property remains in Signa ownership. However, a conversion is not expected before 2025.
There are also plans for the French chain’s glass palace on Friedrichstrasse, which is particularly supported by Senator for Culture Chialo: The central and state library, which has been looking for a new location for years, will move here in the future. From the senator’s point of view, the building by architect Jean Nouvel is ideal for library use.
Galeries Lafayette moved into the building at the end of February 1996. At the time, it was the department store chain’s first branch outside France and to this day the only German location. Hundreds of people stood in line on Friedrichstrasse for the opening of the gallery. (dpa)