The Sears store at 5501 W. 88th Ave. in Westminster will be the fourth Colorado store closed by Sears Holding Corp., the company said today.
The store, located at the Westminster Mall, was spared when the bulk of the mall was demolished in July.
Kim Freely, spokeswoman for Sears Holding Corp., which owns both Sears and Kmart stores, said that the associates at the store were told of the closing Thursday.
The Westminster store is the most recent closing announced by Sears Holding as part of a nationwide plan to close 100 to 120 stores.
Two Kmart stores, one in Glenwood Springs and the other in Broomfield, were targeted in late December along with a Sears store in Longmont.
The Sears in Westminster brings the number of stores closings announced nationwide to 81.
The company has said it has not determined exactly when the stores will be closed.
The company said in December that it could not provide the total number of employees affected because employment varies by store and format. A typical store, however, employs between 40 and 80 people.
Chief Executive Lou D’Ambrosio said when the closures were announced in December that they were necessary given the company’s performance and the difficult economic environment, especially for big ticket items.
An employee at the Westminster store said all questions were being handled by corporate headquarters.
D’Ambrosio said he expected the store closures to generate $140 million to $170 million in cash as the net inventory in the stores is sold. He said Sears expects to generate additional cash proceeds from a sale or sublease of the related real estate.
When the city of Westminster announced it was demolishing the Westminster Mall last May, it said it had acquired all but the Sears store, the Brunswick Zone and a small office building.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
