The owners of the Cross County Shopping Center in Yonkers are looking for a positive outcome in the wake of the anticipated closing of the Sears store there. Sears has been a fixture in the shopping center since the late 1980s, but announced on June 5 that the store would be closing this summer.
The company has been closing stores and selling off real estate since last fall. Sears Holdings Corp. also owns Kmart. In October, Sears filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in federal court in White Plains. It announced the planned closing of more than 140 stores but Yonkers was not among them.
“While we were surprised to hear news about our particular location closing, Sears has been in the news about closures for a while now,” said James Stifel and Craig Deitelzweig of EVPs Brooks Shopping Centers LLC, owners of the Cross County Shopping Center. “Retail demand is strong here and their departure will create an opportunity to re-lease that same space to a concept that will continue to drive traffic, more shopper interest and more sales.”
A spokesman for Sears Holdings Corp. in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, told the Business Journal, “As we continue to evaluate our store network and invest in our best stores, the Sears store in Yonkers at Cross Country Shopping Center did not meet our go-forward criteria. The store will close in late July 2019 and the store liquidation sale will start around June 6. We invite our members and customers to visit our other Sears locations in the tristate area and shop sears.com. The number of impacted associates (employees) is not publicly available. The White Plains store is not impacted.”
