Zurich department store Jelmoli opens for last time

Jelmoli's last day on Zurich's Bahnhofstrasse dawns Keystone-SDA

The Jelmoli department store on Zurich's Bahnhofstrasse has opened for the last time in its current form. On Friday evening the lights will go out in the traditional department store after more than 125 years.

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The real estate company Swiss Prime Site (SPS) decided in February 2023 to close the Jelmoli building near Bahnhofstrasse. This was partly due to online shopping and changing consumer behaviour. The closure of Zurich’s oldest department store, which made headlines across Switzerland, was originally planned for the end of 2024, but two more months were then added.

The plan is to renovate the department store and adapt it to current market requirements. Specifically, Manor will move into the glass palace in 2027 and use 13,000 square metres of space on three floors; a restaurant is also planned. Manor had given up its previous location on Bahnhofstrasse after years of legal disputes due to a sharp rise in rent.

Now that Manor has moved in, half of the “new” Jelmoli building has been let. The other half of the space on the upper floors will be used for offices, restaurants and leisure facilities. There will also be a restaurant on the roof terrace.

Guglielmoli from Italy

The history of Jelmoli began in 1833 with Giovanni Pietro Guglielmoli. He came to Zurich from Italy on behalf of a textile trading company and henceforth called himself Johann Peter Jelmoli.

Construction of the department store began in 1887 and it opened in 1899 as the Jelmoli Glass Palace, ushering in a new era of shopping with its fixed prices. The department store quickly became one of the most successful addresses in Zurich.

In the 1990s, however, sales and profits in the department store business declined steadily. A consumer slump made itself felt. After various changes of ownership, Jelmoli has been owned by SPS since 2009.

Translated from German by DeepL/ts

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