Lord & Taylor closing Fifth Ave. store

An iconic New York City retail location is disappearing from the landscape. The company that owns Lord & Taylor says it will close up to 10 locations and one of them will be the flagship store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

The decision to close the Fifth Avenue store comes after the company recently decided to sell the building to co-working real estate company WeWork. The initial plans were to keep a smaller version of the store at that location but that plan has been abandoned.

A list of other locations set to close was not immediately available but if the number reaches 10 it would represent 20 percent of the 50 Lord & Taylor stores still in operation. The closures will take place through 2019.

Hudson's Bay Company is trying to turn the retailer around and make it profitable. The company will also sell e-commerce site Gilt to Rue La La as part of the restructuring. Hudson's Bay also owns Saks Fifth Avenue.

In a statement to Fox 5 News, Hudson's Bay said:  "Our focus on driving Lord & Taylor’s digital business, combined with new leadership and a rightsized store footprint, will evolve the customer experience and is expected to reduce costs and improve the overall performance of this business."

Lord & Taylor is believed to be the oldest department store in the country. The original store opened in Manhattan in 1826. The Fifth Avenue store and headquarters opened in 1914. It was the first store to put elaborate holiday displays in its windows. The displays were actually constructed in the basement of the store and then raised into the windows as they were revealed.