Sears store at Norfolk mall slated to close

Posted to: Business Consumer - Retail Norfolk
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By Carolyn Shapiro
The Virginian-Pilot
© December 30, 2011

NORFOLK

The Sears department store at The Gallery at Military Circle is on a list of 79 Sears and Kmart stores that will close after a rough holiday season for the retailer.

Sears Holdings Corp. announced Tuesday that it planned to shutter as many as 120 of its Sears and Kmart stores nationwide. The list released Thursday also includes two Kmart stores in the Richmond area but no other Virginia locations. Florida will lose 11 Sears and Kmart stores - the most of any state.

Kmart has a dozen stores in Chesapeake, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Hampton, Newport News, Tabb and Williamsburg. Besides the Military Circle store, Sears has locations at Greenbrier Mall and Chesapeake Square in Chesapeake, Pembroke Mall in Virginia Beach, and Newmarket Fair Mall in Newport News. The region also has two Sears Outlet Stores, in Chesapeake and Norfolk.

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Sears expects to make more closing announcements. The company gave no closing dates for the stores on the list, nor did it specify the number of employees at each store or what will happen to them. A typical Sears on the closing list has 40 to 80 workers, the retailer's announcement said.

Amanda Faber, a Sears Holdings spokeswoman, declined via email to provide more information. A manager at the Sears at Military Circle said she was not allowed to speak and declined to give her name.

Yul Lim, who owns Lim's clothing store in The Gallery at Military Circle, said the loss of Sears is likely to hurt the mall's reputation.

"It doesn't bode well for the center," he said.

Sears' departure also will have consequences for its neighboring small retailers, Lim said.

"When you're in the mall, you sort of piggyback on the anchor stores," he said. "We rely on anchor stores to bring in traffic."

At Military Circle, Sears was somewhat hidden in the back of the mall, which might have contributed to weak sales, Larry Hecht, a senior vice president for Harvey Lindsay Commercial Real Estate in Norfolk, wrote in an email following the announcement.

The remaining "local Sears and Kmart stores are in solid locations, and I hope that there won't be any further closings," he wrote.

Sears is the first demise of a major mall anchor in the region since Dillard's closed its Chesapeake Square department stores in 2009. Lord & Taylor left Lynnhaven Mall in Virginia Beach, its last local store, in 2005.

Sears Holdings, based in Hoffman Estates, Ill., says the store closings will generate $140 million to $170 million in cash in inventory sales.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Carolyn Shapiro, (757) 446-2270, carolyn.shapiro@pilotonline.com

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Military Circle another mid-city Portsmouth

Submitted by NO JONES on Sat, 12/31/2011 at 3:10 am.

Tear it all down. Lynnhaven Mall? Well, "into the Valley rode the 600." You knowingly built your Mall bordered by high-crime neighborhoods, Navy-wife Telemarketing Boiler Room Operations, and a Master Jet Base.

I have lived in Tidewater

Submitted by jonbb5678 on Fri, 12/30/2011 at 8:45 pm.

I have lived in Tidewater for 25 years and remember taking my kids to both Military Circle Mall and Lynnhaven Mall. I stopped going to both of these malls over 10 years ago due to the crime and the apparent lack of security provided in the parking lots. I would not even think of taking kids back into these areas. Sears is doing the right thing in closing this store. Their customers will no longer tolerate the lack of security provided by the mall owners.

Sears is closing stores all

Submitted by Voltaire on Sat, 12/31/2011 at 3:43 am.

Sears is closing stores all over the country.

Its not about security

Submitted by machineguns on Fri, 12/30/2011 at 9:17 pm.

Their not closing their stores because there is a lack of security......its the economy and it has nothing to do with security........people aren't spending the money like they were and its starting to show up in closings of stores everywhere......not because its unsafe. Otherwise there would be a spike in sales for the migration of shoppers elsewhere......that is not the case.

What the heck.

Submitted by R Clarence on Fri, 12/30/2011 at 8:32 pm.

Look on the bright side. Sears leaving will give someone an opportunity to open another store. There's a big ole empty nothing there just waiting for the right business. Maybe a Farm Fresh at The Gallery Across From The Yard.

Sad!

Submitted by Va. Beach Guy on Fri, 12/30/2011 at 4:50 pm.

I am old enough to remember when Military Circle opened! It was exiciting and quite beautiful.

J.B Hunter...Smith & Welton...Miller & Rhodes, Orange Julius, Shulmans, etc. etc.

Over the years it has become a dangerous dump!

Not too many years ago, I came out and 2 of the 4 tires on my car were gone!

How sad!

Sears closing at MCM

Submitted by Chris82 on Fri, 12/30/2011 at 4:19 pm.

Wow, can't believe I actually went back and read all the other posts on this topic. Talk about some people with just pure hate and discontent for the City of Norfolk. Last time I checked Lynnhaven Mall out in VA Beach was pretty darn dangerous itself. But oh you can't mention that, it's in VA Beach, not Norfolk. People will defend VA Beach that it's so safe and family friendly until they die but the numbers don't lie.

As far as Sears goes, well this isn't the first step and it's definitely not going to be the last in their fall. And you can believe this is not just a stumble, it's going to fall and be dead within a matter of time. Both Sears and K-Mart have struggled for years and years.