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SAKS GOES TO CHINA

Saks Inc. says it plans to open a 300,000-square-foot Saks Fifth Avenue flagship store in the upscale Bund district of Shanghai, China, by 2008. The store is part of a licensing agreement the Birmingham, Ala.-based retailer struck with Roosevelt China Investments Corp., a Boston-based private fund controlled by the descendants of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The deal gives RCI the right to own and operate Saks Fifth Avenue stores in China and the territory of Macao, located just off the coast from Hong Kong.

“The Bund district is a major financial center,” said Julie Frohlich, director of Goulston & Storrs, the Boston-based law firm that led negotiations. “The building was chosen, in part, because it resembles the flagship store on Fifth Avenue architecturally. It’s the next natural phase of expansion.”

China has an exploding economy, and consumer demand for fine goods is high, Frohlich says. The city of Shanghai alone has more than 13 million residents.

Saks opened its first international licensed Saks Fifth Avenue store in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2001, followed by its second, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in 2004. RCI’s expansion plans for China are not set in stone, Frohlich says, but the firm’s goal is to open a half dozen roughly 250,000-square-foot stores by 2011.

— Molly Knight