Miller & Rhoads - The Beginning of The End, and New Beginnings

The Beginning of The End, and New Beginnings

The Garfinkel, Brooks Brothers, Miller & Rhoads company was acquired by Allied Stores in 1982. This marked a low point in the chain's history, as Allied closed many of the smaller stores, exiting the North Carolina market except for Raleigh, and began to neglect the maintenance on its larger stores in an effort to cut operating costs. Allied opened a small number of new, larger locations in Virginia. The downtown Roanoke store was closed in this period and replaced by a store at Valley View Mall.

In an effort to revitalize the decaying downtown Richmond retail core, the city government, Miller & Rhoads, and Thalhimers teamed together in 1985 in the development of the Sixth Street Marketplace, an urban shopping center that took the place of the street that separated the two stores. Though it started out relatively popular, the downtown mall did not remain a success, and was razed by 2004. Miller & Rhoads' suburban stores continued to grow, but the downtown store's sales were generally stagnant with the exception of the Christmas season.

In 1987, following its own ill-fated buyout by Campeau Corp., Allied sold Miller & Rhoads to Philadelphia developer Kevin Donohoe and store management, who began to renovate stores and plan a major expansion. At the time, Miller & Rhoads numbered 21 stores.

Only two years later, in 1989, the company's future was dimming. Faced with increasing competition from stores like Leggett and Hess's and dwindling finances, Miller & Rhoads filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and by 1990, all Miller & Rhoads stores closed their doors for good.

The May Department Stores Company purchased four of Miller & Rhoads' larger suburban units in Richmond and Hampton Roads for about $22.7 million and reopened them as Hecht's in late 1990. May would in turn take over Thalhimers that same year and eventually combine that chain with Hecht's as well.

At both Regency Square and Lynnhaven Mall, Hecht's would operate 2 stores, one each in the former Miller & Rhoads and Thalhimers spaces. Hecht's eventually consolidated its Lynnhaven Mall stores into a single location, but at Regency Square, both stores were occupied by the chain until September 2006 when the Hecht's name was replaced with Macy's.

Many of the remaining former Miller & Rhoads stores were converted to department stores like Montgomery Ward, Stone & Thomas and Value City or subdivided for other retail uses, while some were turned into offices and others demolished.

In 2006, work began to convert the long shuttered Miller & Rhoads flagship store in downtown Richmond into a hotel and residential spaces. The old department store is now home to a 250-room Hilton Garden Inn and 130 apartments or condominiums. The $100 million project is being overseen by Richmond's Broad Street Community Development Authority.