The French luxury department store group Galeries Lafayette will close its Berlin location to customers at the end of July, several months earlier than previously announced.
A spokeswoman for the group confirmed earlier reports on the BZ (formerly Berliner Zeitung) website on Thursday evening. The department store will close on July 31 so that the premises can be handed over to the owner by the end of the year, the spokeswoman said.
According to the media report, employees were informed of the closure at a staff meeting on Thursday. 190 employees are affected. The company did not comment on this when asked.
Galeries Lafayette announced in October last year that it would close its only shop in Germany on Berlin's Friedrichstraße at the end of 2024. The rental agreement with property owner Tishman Speyer will not be extended, it said.
The glass palace, which Galeries Lafayette moved into at the end of February 1996, was designed by architect Jean Nouvel. Hundreds of people queued along Friedrichstrasse in winter weather for the opening of the Galeries.
Alongside KaDeWe in the west of Berlin, it is still probably the most famous luxury department store in the German capital.
The closure plans come as no surprise. It has long been known that the lease expires at the end of this year. According to Galeries Lafayette, however, it had been trying for a long time to negotiate an extension of the contract with the owner.