Recently passing by the old Samaritaine Department store in Paris i noticed that the place was still rather boarded up - after having been closed several years ago due to safety violations or some such thing.

Does anyone have any update on the store's future - Google searches yield conflicting and confusing info on the store's future.

I for one hope for a speedyre-opening - trekking thru the chaotic La Samaritaines various buildings was always a delight- the cafe/resto on the upper floor facing the Seine had such delicious views over the Seine and Notre Dame/Left Bank area.

Well apparently the store company still has a website that may give hope to a Phoenix-like renewal - but any Parisians or others in the know about wazz up with La Samaritaine - is it dead forever?

Merci



La Samaritaine - Le grand magasin - Shopping, Mode, Décoration - [ Translate this page ]
Department store closed due to works for the purpose of security. We stay at your service for any information, Monday to Friday from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM. ...
www.lasamaritaine.com/

I heard it was going to be turned into high end condos. Don't know if that's true, just what a Parisian friend told me.

I went to the store 2 years ago to do some shopping and it was boarded up. So disappointing. We liked to go to the rooftop cafe and sit by the window.

We walked over to the Bon Marche and shopped there.

From Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Samaritaine
Since 2005, the building has been closed for reasons of security and renovation.

There appear to have been plans to turn into a luxury hotel (which makes a certain sense):

http://pollyvousfrancais.blogspot.co...maritaine.html

thanks all - as i sadly surmised by the years the store has been shut and employees dispersed it looks like a re-opening ain'tin the works. But yeh a great venue for upscale condos.

Is that the department store that resembled a Cathedral? Well at least it did to me to me as a much younger traveller some years ago.I think I went to a fashion show there and the building was so amazing and the models so gorgeous that I had to keep drag my husband away to shop! I believe it was described as the most beautiful department store in the world by some famous travel writer so I do hope they don't change it too much.Kerry

This says a mixed use as did another newsletter I received months ago

http://parisisinvisible.blogspot.com...maritaine.html

The city council approved a planning application in April 2009 (http://www.lefigaro.fr/societes/2009...maritaine-.php), and the holding company's CEO said in November it'd reopen in 2013.

The plans include 230,000 sq ft of conventional dept store selling space (about half the 2004 selling space, which was roughly the same size as Selfridge's, or half a Harrods), as well as a food hall. Far from "high end condos", part of the demands of the city council (which holding co LVMV have accepted) was to add social housing to the mix.

I'm not sure, BTW, the staff have all disappeared. The division CEO said at the time the building was condemned that the staff would stay on the payroll till it reopened. What he really meant - and whether that promise has been fully honoured - isn't clear.

Personally, I've never been a great Samaritaine fan. Beautiful ironwork, let down by acres of gloomy atmosphere, often dismal merchandising and an almost Soviet air of lackadaisacal maintenance. Properly managed, you'd think it'd be wonderful: but buildings designed as architectural glories - especially ones with as many redevelopment restrictions as it must have - are rarely flexible enough to make for enjoyable shopping or profitable retailing.

Halving the selling space will probably help, though: I always got the feeling they were running out of ideas as you got to the upper floors.

I might have misread my notes.

It's 230,000 sq ft of selling space (might be a mall - which, in a sense, is what Samaritaine was originally - not a dept store) plus a 'grand surface', which isn't necessarily a food hall, but could be a conventional supermarket - though the kind of poncified version Waitrose has put into the basement of J Lewis Oxford St would be nice.

I used to go there..The view from the roof was magnificent.