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The Staten Island Mall is losing its anchor tenant, with beleaguered department store Sears planning to close its location there for good in September.
Sears had been in the New Springville store for more than four decades, The Staten Island Advance reports. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last year, and earlier this year Sears Holdings opened some smaller-format stores around the country as part of the company's reorganization.
Until now, the Sears at Staten Island was set to remain open, per the newspaper, but employees at the location were informed that it will now be closing down. Brookfield owns the mall at 2655 Richmond Ave., which features 1.2M SF of retail space, according to Brookfield’s website.
"As part of Sears Holdings’ bankruptcy proceedings, our go-forward company, Transform Holdco LLC, [the company that acquired Sears and Outlets stores following the bankruptcy] has the right not to acquire various contracts that were entered into by Sears Holdings,” a Sears spokesperson told the Advance.
"Transform Holdco was not able to reach a satisfactory agreement with the landlord of our Sears store at Staten Island Mall, and thus decided not to acquire the current lease for the store."
The Sears location spanned 40K SF in the mall after shrinking its presence significantly over the last few years. Big-box retail has been out of favor with shoppers for some time now, and some retailers, like Ikea and Target, are looking to open smaller concept stores in urban centers to appeal to changing consumer behaviors.
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