El Palacio de Hierro

El Palacio de Hierro is a Mexican upscale department store chain with 31 locations. Headquartered in Mexico City, it consists of 16 full-line Palacio de Hierro department stores, three Boutique Palacio junior department stores, two Casa Palacio home stores, and two outlets located in Greater Mexico City and eight other major cities across Mexico. Operated by the corporation Grupo El Palacio de Hierro S.A.B. de C.V., it has two flagship stores - one the original historic flagship in the Historic center of Mexico City and the Palacio de los Palacios ("Palace of the Palaces") store in the Polanco district, reopened in 2016 after an extensive renovation costing US$300 million, and at 55200 sqm, the largest department store in Latin America.[2] Palacio de Hierro has been a member of the International Association of Department Stores since 2000.[3]

History

Origins

In the 1850s, French immigrant Victor Gassier opened a clothing store, Las Fábricas de Francia (The Factories of France), not related with the currently operating Fábricas de Francia chain.

Palacio de Hierro stores

Original downtown flagship

The original store and historic flagship (1891, rebuilt and reopened 1921), still operates along the north side of Venustiano Carranza street in the Historic center of Mexico City, one block south of the Zócalo (main square), between 5 de Febrero and 20 de Noviembre avenues.

Durango, Colonia Roma

The Durango store, on Durango street in Colonia Roma Norte, is the only other freestanding Palacio, and was the first branch store, opened in 1958. The architects José Aspe Sais and Vladimir Kaspé designed it in functionalist style, and the department store construction expert constructed the building in only 16 months. In 1967, under visionary leadership of Alberto Baillères, the Durango store was remodeled and modernized. Harper's Bazaar called it the "Store of the Century" due its modern character.[8]

Polanco flagship

Since its complete remodel and reopening in 2016, the de facto flagship store is the 4-story, 55248 sqm freestanding store in Polanco designed by architect Javier Sordo Madaleno, which the company gave the nickname "El Palacio de los Palacios", "the Palace of the Palaces").[9] The advertising campaign for the 2016 relaunch of the store was "Polanco tiene un nuevo corazón: El Palacio de los Palacios" ("Polanco has a new heart: The Palace of Palaces") and featured top models David Gandy, Isabeli Fontana and Carmen Dell'Orefice. 10,000 people attended the re-opening event on November 6, 2016. Javier Sordo Madaleno was the architect; TPG Architecture designed the interiors of the lower two floors, Gensler the upper two floors.[10]

Each floor was designed with a theme of different famous neighborhoods in Mexico City, a nickname of which is the "City of Palaces":[10]

The property originally was a mall called Molière222, opened in 1997, and included a smaller Palacio store; in 2015 the mall area was incorporated into the Palacio store as part of the US$300 million remodel and expansion.

The ground floor, with the cosmetics area and luxury brand boutiques (with internal walls or similar features distinguishing them as separate spaces from, with distinct entrances from, the main store area. The turn-of-the-20th-century Paris-inspired Paseo de la Reforma, and the colonial Alameda Central park are the themes of this floor.
The 1st floor up (U.S.: 2nd floor) with the women's and children's areas, recreates Lomas de Chapultepec and Polanco
The 2nd floor up, (U.S.: 3rd floor) with the gourmet food hall, men's and technology departments, has the Roma and Condesa areas as its inspiration. The food hall is partially inside from and partially on a 1500 sqm patio with views over Polanco.
The 3rd floor up (U.S.: 4th floor) with the home store, emulates Jardines del Pedregal

Coyoacán (Mitikah)

In 2022, a new store at the new Mítikah shopping center in Xoco neighborhoods adjacent to Coyoacán replaced the store built in 1989 just to the west at the Centro Coyoacán mall. The new Coyoacán Palacio has 5 levels and 38000 sqm of floor space in the current phase, with plans to expand to 47000 sqm. It features a 9.7 m-high crystal dome measuring 1652 sqm at its base and which uses 2100 sqft of crystal and 163 metric tons of metal.[11]

Others

There are 4 other full-line Palacio branches in Greater Mexico City, and like the Mitikah store, each anchors an upscale mall across the metropolitan area's affluent western half: Perisur (1980), Santa Fe (1993), Satélite (1998), and Interlomas (2011).

There are 6 full-line Palacio stores in the rest of the country, one each in Greater Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Querétaro, Veracruz, and Villahermosa.

type	Department store
foundation	1850 as Las Fábricas de Francia, 1888 as El Palacio de Hierro
location	Mexico City, Mexico
num locations	31
key people	Juan Carlos Escribano (CEO)
industry	Retail
products	Apparel and accessories, cosmetics, electronics, home furnishings and appliances, gourmet food, services (restaurants, food halls, hair salons, travel agency)
parent	Grupo BAL
homepage	http://www.elpalaciodehierro.com

El Palacio de Hierro

History

Origins

Product lines

Store formats

Palacio de Hierro stores

Original downtown flagship

Durango, Colonia Roma

Polanco flagship

Coyoacán (Mitikah)

Others

Boutiques

Locations

External links

References