Dillard Department Stores expects to open three or four stores in South Florida by fall 1993, the founder and chairman of the company said on Monday.
During 1992, the chain plans to open stores in Stuart, Sarasota and Port Charlotte, Dillard’s chairman William T. Dillard said. During 1993, it will move into South Florida, but Dillard would not say where. He was speaking to a meeting of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association in Boca Raton.
Although Dillard said he will not give specifics until leases are signed, mall owner Edward J. DeBartolo Corp. has said the company is talking about a new store at the Boynton Beach Mall.
Retail analysts say Dillard might be interested in buying former Maas Brothers/Jordan Marsh stores that are for sale at The Galleria in Fort Lauderdale and Coral Square in Coral Springs. The Galleria store is closed, and the Coral Square store has been converted to a Burdines, the second one at the same site.
Another candidate might be the Pembroke Lakes Mall, which is under construction in Pembroke Pines.
Dillard’s is one of Wall Street’s quiet profit makers that has defied the ongoing slump in retailing.
“My goal has been to consistently make a profit of 5 percent after taxes,” Dillard told the publishers.
The stores offer brand-name merchandise, few sales, and have a highly organized inventory system.
Dillard founded the chain in 1938 in Arkansas, and it has grown to 201 stores in 19 states, mostly in the Midwest, Southwest and Southeast.
Dillard’s had been rebuffed in its bid to enter South Florida earlier this year. In August, Dillard’s bid $80 million for 12 Maas Brothers/Jordan Marsh stores, but it was outbid by Mervyn’s, a California-based retail chain.
Mervyn’s plans to open two of those stores this week. Today, a converted Maas Brothers/Jordan Marsh store reopens at Town Center mall in Boca Raton, and on Wednesday, another opens at Broward Mall in Plantation.
