J.C. Penney permanently closing Poughkeepsie Galleria store

The J.C. Penney store in Poughkeepsie”™s Galleria shopping mall will be permanently closing on Sept. 27, according to a notice filed with the New York State Department of Labor.

The Poughkeepsie location was not included in the list of 154 stores to be closed that J.C. Penney released on June 4.

In conjunction with its May 15 filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the company said it would permanently close 242 of its 842 stores. The bankruptcy filing was made in federal bankruptcy court for the Southern District of Texas in Corpus Christi. J.C. Penney said in a statement that it hoped to reorganize and remain in business with approximately 600 stores in operation.

J.C. Penney had initially announced it would permanently close seven stores in New York state. They all were upstate in Auburn, Batavia, Canandaigua, New Hartford, Oswego, Rome and Syracuse. The new filing with the Labor Department introduces downstate into the equation. At the same time as it notified the Labor Department about the Poughkeepsie shutdown, J.C. Penney disclosed that it also would be closing its store in the South Shore Mall in Bay Shore on Long Island.

J.C. Penney told theLabor Department that all 109 of its employees at the Poughkeepsie location would be laid off as of Sept. 25. It said the employees were not represented by a union. All 136 employees at the Bay Shore store also would be laid off as of Sept. 25 and are not represented by a union.

At the time of the bankruptcy filing, the company said it had approximately $500 million cash on hand and had received commitments for $900 million in financing. It reported having approximately 85,000 employees. On June 11, U. S. Bankruptcy Judge David Jones gave the company extra time to pay rent it owed to various landlords.

On June 4, J.C. Penney”™s CEO Jill Soltau had expressed optimism for the future. “As of June 4, 2020, we have reopened nearly 500 stores since government officials have eased COVD-19 restrictions and we look forward to opening more. We are excited to welcome back our customers and associates at these locations, and we will continue to take actions to be best positioned to build on our over 100-year history,” Soltau said.