Barneys New York may soon be owned by an investment arm of the Dubai government, according to a story Thursday in The New York Times.

The Jones Apparel Group is close to an agreement to sell the fashionable clothing retailer, whose flagship store is a Madison Avenue landmark, for about $825 million, the Times quotes people involved in the talks.

The proposed deal with Istithmar, the investment arm of Dubai, is in the final stages and could come early next week, these people told the newspaper. They reportedly cautioned that the talks could collapse.

Jones Apparel, a clothing conglomerate that owns Anne Klein, Jones New York, and Nine West, called off an auction of the entire company last year but had been quietly shopping Barneys, which carries top designers, like Helmut Lang and Marc Jacobs, and lesser-known labels like Lutz & Patmos and Rag & Bone, the newspaper reports.

JCK