Filene’s: Bringing Boston Stuff They Can’t Move Elsewhere

Every Filene’s flyer we’ve checked out in the past few months has had a nice little fine print section informing readers that the sales are not effective at pretty every store in the area. They’re all closing as part of the merger with Macy’s parent company Federated. Bostonist went to visit the liquidation sale at the Downtown Crossing location in February and we thought the super sale prices weren’t really any better than automatic markdowns that we could find below the building. The Basement, a separate company, will be sticking around for a while after the flagship store closes their doors. Yesterday it was reported that the Downtown Crossing Filene’s wasn’t going to close as soon as we thought, they’ve gotten the go-ahead to keep hawking merchandise discounted 60 to 80% imported from other (closing) stores. They’ve said these will be high-end items like rugs and furs, things Bostonist isn’t generally in the market for, but at least it will give a little more life to the area – even if they’re just selling stuff they couldn’t get rid of elsewhere.

There has been a bit of commotion about Downtown Crossing in the last few days. Menino stepped up to the plate to fund his million-dollar facelift initiative with $500 grand of City money. The folks at the Herald don’t think the awnings and benches are good enough if the sidewalks are still rolling up at 7pm. “But without ‘neighbors,’ Downtown Crossing can’t reasonably be called a neighborhood.” They’re getting jazzed up thinking about the imminent purchase of the Filene’s building by Vornado Realty Trust of New York. Vornado has floated a number of plans for the city block sized property, one of which is to erect a residential tower on top of the existing structure. Menino and other city officials are still looking for a Target to open its doors in a renovated building (we hope they paint one of these on the roof). Changes may be imminent in Downtown Crossing, but Bostonist is confident we won’t see them come to fruition anytime too soon.

Image courtesy of Flickr user: grenade who went to the Downtown Crossing Filene's in March, snapped a picture of their proclomation - "nothing held back," well, except for some things.