Sears Holding Corp.’s latest round of store closures includes the last full-line Sears store in metropolitan Toledo.
The struggling Illinois-based retailer confirmed on Thursday that it will shut its location at the Westgate Village Shopping Center in mid-September.
The adjacent Sears Auto Center will close earlier, currently expected to be in late July.
“We have been strategically and aggressively evaluating our store space and productivity, and have accelerated the closing of unprofitable stores as previously announced,” a company spokesman wrote in an email to The Blade.
The company did not provide a full list of stores to be closed, but Business Insider reported that 21 locations would be shuttered.
The list of closings includes two stores in the Cleveland area.
Sears Holding, which includes both the Sears and Kmart stores, has been struggling with falling revenue for several years. The company has lost $10.4 billion since 2011, including $2 billion last year alone.
That has led to a number of store closures, including 42 sears locations and 108 Kmart locations announced in March. That round of closures included a Kmart in Adrian.
Last week, Sears Holding said it would eliminate about 400 full-time corporate office and global support positions. On Thursday, Sears Canada filed for bankruptcy, saying it planned to close 59 of its 225 Canadian stores and cut 2,900 of its 17,000 workers in that country.
Sears declined to say how many employees it has at the Westgate store, though a spokesman told The Blade eligible employees will receive severance and have the opportunity to apply for open positions at area Sears or Kmart stores.
There may be a silver lining to Sears’ closure, though.
Pete Shawaker, a commercial Realtor at Toledo real estate firm Reichle Klein Group, said Westgate is the single hottest retail market in northwest Ohio right now, commanding higher rents and attracting loads of interest.
“I think it’s going to be absolutely redeveloped,” Mr. Shawaker said. “Within a year from now, there will be announcements about who’s going there and what’s happening.”
Mr. Shawaker expects the existing store, which was built in 1956, to be razed. He said he’s already had interest from retailers about the site.
The location, with entrance driveways from Secor Road and from Central Avenue, would be well-suited for a midsize anchor that’s somewhat larger than the other recent development in Westgate, with other smaller shops flanking it.
The Westgate shopping center is owned and operated by Abbell Associates LLC in Chicago. Abbell’s holdings include the Sears parking lot, but the building itself is owned by Seritage Growth Properties, a real estate investment trust spun off by Sears in 2015.
“We think this will create an opportunity for Seritage to redevelop it and we look forward to an opportunity to work with them to do it,” said Liz Holland, Abbell’s chief executive officer.
Abbell has redeveloped two parts of the shopping center in recent years, bringing in a mix of retail and restaurants.
Ms. Holland said there are similar opportunities for the Sears site.
“There are lots of higher-end better uses for the property, just as you saw what we did on the south side and what we’re doing immediately east of there,” she said.
Sears still has smaller outlet stores in Holland, Bowling Green, Bryan, Lima, Norwalk, and Van Wert.
In response to news of the closure, Toledo Mayor Paul Hicks-Hudson issued a statement.
“We are sorry for the families in Toledo that are losing their jobs as part of the difficulties retail entities are facing throughout the nation,” she said. “Last week’s Federal Reserve report shows Toledo is outpacing the rest of the state in job growth and increases in income but we still have work to do. My administration works every day to expand economic opportunity for our citizens and so I am hopeful that former Sears workers will be able to find new jobs here in Toledo.”
Contact Tyrel Linkhorn at tlinkhorn@theblade.com or 419-724-6134.
First Published June 23, 2017, 4:12 a.m.
