Mammon for Us, God for Them

The new owners of Lord & Taylor, the venerable department store whose Fifth Avenue flagship is a New York landmark, said they intend to close many downtown locations to concentrate on suburban shoppers. Some of the Manhattan store's 650,000 square feet will be turned into offices and apartments; Philadelphia's Lord & Taylor is already a Macy's, and the Watertower Place store near Chicago's Miracle Mile will soon be closed. The company, NRDC Equity Partners, says it prefers to focus on "residential neighborhoods in upscale lifestyle centers." Shoppers there, a spokesman said, are looking for an alternative to Nieman Marcus on the high end and Kohl's on the low.

Meanwhile a suburban Chicago institution is sending God downtown. The Willow Creek Community Church—a megachurch that is a landmark in its own, uh, rite in South Barrington, Ill.—has opened a downtown branch in Chicago's historic Auditorium Theater, holding its debut service last Sunday.