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GLOBAL RETAIL REAL ESTATE ROUNDUP
- Disney's ESPN Zone Restaurant Closings Put 200,000 SF on the market.
- Disney also closing 24 U.S. Disney Store locations and 3 Canada sites.
- Swiss watch-maker Movado closing all 27 U.S. stores.
- Movie Gallery's Canadian and U.S. stores in liquidation.
- Walmart closing 10 Sam's Club but also opening six new Sam's sites.
- Fuddrucker fast-food chain gone.
- Supervalu Unloads Bigg's unit.
- Hibbett Sports expanding but closing about 15 under-performing locations.
- 84 Lumber slims down to 284 stores.
- Jones Apparel shuttering 165 specialty stores this year; closed 100 mall-based stores in 2009.
Don't look for a retail real estate rebound in the second half. It isn't coming, according to a growing list of store closings announced in the first six months of 2010.
AOL Money & Finance compiled the most recent list, based on new and previously-published reports.
THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY
The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE:DIS) closed its ESPN Zone restaurants in New York, Baltimore, Washington, DC, Las Vegas and Chicago June 16. With about 150 employees per ESPN Zone location, the closures leave approximately 1,000 workers jobless. Additionally, about 200,000 square feet in retail space is about to hit the market, according to CoStar. Disney blamed the poor economy for the closures.
DISNEY STORES
Disney is in the process of liquidating and shuttering 24 U.S. and three Canada Disney Store locations. As of October 2009, there were 340 total locations. The closures are part of an effort to revamp its existing stores to be interactive and more in keeping with the "Magic Kingdom" theme park feel, according to CoStar Retail News.
MOVADO
The Chicago Tribune reported May 28 that Movado Group Inc., the Swiss watchmaker and jeweler, plans to close its money-losing retail division by the end of June in a move to turn around the company. It will close all 27 U.S. stores. The company said it doesn't intend to run any store closing or liquidation sales, a move to protect its brand name.
DOLLAR STORE
A 37-store network of Dollar Store outlets in Washington and Oregon announced May 8 it will be closing, just weeks after the parent company filed for bankruptcy in late March.
KENNETH COLE PRODUCTIONS
In its May 5th earnings call, Kenneth Cole CFO David Edelman noted that it closed three stores since the beginning of the year and expects to close a total of five to 10 stores by year-end.
MOVIE GALLERY / HOLLYWOOD VIDEO / GAME CRAZY
During a company-wide conference call on April 30, it was announced that all U.S. Hollywood Video, Movie Gallery, and Game Crazy stores would begin the liquidation process in May 2010. Stores will stay open for up to six weeks after liquidation begins. The fate of the company's Canadian stores was sealed on June 8, 2010, as they also entered liquidation.
Movie Gallery filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Feb. 2. At that time, the company said it was not going out of business. The company operates 1,906 stores in the U.S., including 1,111 Movie Gallery, 545 Hollywood Video and 250 Game Crazy locations. The company anticipates additional store closings during the Chapter 11 process.
FUDDRUCKERS
Magic Brands, owner of Fuddruckers announced April 26 it will use a Chapter 11 bankruptcy "to terminate certain Fuddruckers leases and close 24 corporate-owned Fuddruckers restaurants by April 30, 2010."
CHRISTOPHER & BANKS
Christopher & Banks Corp. is a Minneapolis-based specialty retailer of women's clothing. As of April 15, 2010, the company operates 799 stores in 46 states. The company currently plans to open about 10 new stores and close 25 existing stores in fiscal 2011.
KROGER LITTLE CLINICS
The Kroger Co. announced April 8 it is closing 20 in-store medical clinics operated by The Little Clinic chain, and plans to revamp the business model for the convenient care chain in which it made an $86 million investment in 2008.
CHARMING SHOPPES
Charming Shoppes, Inc., the plus-size specialty retailer with up to 2,121 stores nationwide -- including Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug, and Catherines chains -- announced March 30 it would close 100 to 120 of its branches in fiscal 2010.
SWOOZIES
The Atlanta-based retailer of greeting cards and gifts is closing all 43 stores. In March, Hilco purchased the company's retail and other assets in a bankruptcy court-approved auction for $7.4 million. Everything in the stores will be liquidated.
SUPERVALU SHEDS BIGG'S
SuperValu is divesting itself of the Bigg's grocery store line, closing five underperforming locations and selling the rest to Remke Markets. The supermarket owner said in a March 29 statement it would close four stores in an Ohio and one in Kentucky. Remke is set to acquire the remaining six Bigg's stores. The divestiture is SuperValu's second in 2010. The company recently announced the sale of its Shaw's locations in Connecticut.
HIBBETT SPORTS
Hibbett Sports, a leading sporting goods company in the U.S., anticipates opening 30 new stores during fiscal 2011, expanding 20 high performing stores and closing about 10-15 under-performing stores.
CRICKET WIRELESS
San Diego Business Journal reports Leap Wireless has cut 180 jobs and shuttered 27 Cricket stores nationwide. The flat-rate carrier said the restructuring reflects its changing priorities for the year. Leap spokesman Greg Lund told FierceWireless that 90 of the job cuts were corporate positions and 90 were "field positions." Leap has around 4,200 total corporate employees and now has 242 company-owned stores.
84 LUMBER
84 Lumber, the industry's largest privately held chain of lumberyards, closed 10 stores in 10 states on March 15 due to declining housing starts. The Eighty Four, Pa.-based company now operates 289 stores in 34 states, with 2009 revenues of $1.35 billion. In 2008, the company posted sales of $2.1 billion with 335 locations.
ANN TAYLOR
Ann Taylor updated expectations March 12 related to the store closure component of its strategic restructuring program. Under the program, the company closed 60 stores in fiscal 2008, 42 stores in fiscal 2009, and expects to close approximately 72 stores in fiscal 2010, for a total of about 174 store closures under the three-year program. Of these, about half are expected to be Ann Taylor stores and half are expected to be LOFT stores.
BLOCKBUSTER
For the full year of 2010, Blockbuster expects to close a range of 500 to 545 under-performing domestic company-owned stores. Of these, Blockbuster closed 253 stores in January 2010 and has identified about 150 other stores that are expected to be closed in April 2010. The company then expects to close about 75 to 125 more stores throughout the remaining portion of 2010
JONES APPAREL
Jones Apparel plans on closing 165 of its specialty retail stores in 2010. While company representatives declined to say which of its stores would be closed, they indicated the mall-based retail locations would be closed to allow increased focus on their outlet stores. In 2009, Jones Apparel closed 100 mall-based retail stores which has produced positive results for the parent company of Nine West, Anne Klein, Bandolino and Easy Spirit.
WALDENBOOKS
In a January press release about disappointing holiday sales, Borders Group, Inc. reiterated its decision to close 182 Waldenbooks Specialty Retail stores. According to CoStar's Retail News Roundup, Borders has been "whittling down its Waldenbooks chain since 2001, closing an average of 66 stores per year through 2007. In 2008, 112 stores were closed."
FOOT LOCKER
In 2010, Foot Locker plans to consolidate its Foot Locker, Lady Foot Locker, Kid Foot Locker and Footaction operations under one management structure. As part of this initiative, it closed 106 underproductive stores during the first quarter and eliminated 120 corporate positions. The company also closed 179 stores in 2009.
JO-ANN STORES
The company expects to open about 30 new fabrics goods and home furnishings stores and close about 30 stores in fiscal 2011.
HOME DEPOT
Due to the recession and lingering housing crisis, Home Depot announced in January it would lay off 1,000 employees company-wide. In addition, it decided to close three pilot stores: a clearance center in Austell, GA, a hurricane recovery store in Waveland, MS and a small-format store in Wilson, NC. The company said there were no plans to close any of the chain's flagship "orange box" stores. It remains the largest home improvement store in the U.S. with 1,976 stores.
THE WALKING COMPANY
The Walking Company filed a reorganization plan Feb. 2 under which the company intends to keep 207 of its 214 current store locations open. This was a turnaround from its original plan, announced in December 2009, to close 90 of its under-performing locations.
CRABTREE & EVELYN
The skin-care products company filed for bankruptcy court protection in July 2009. But, according to the BNET Retail Blog, Crabtree & Evelyn will actually emerge from the bankruptcy -- something that is unusual in the retail arena. In the end, the company will only need to close 35 of its 126 stores.
ALBERTSONS
Boise, ID-based Albertsons LLC is in the process of closing 11 underperforming stores. Specifically, the grocery retailer is closing eight stores in Florida, as well as three stores in Colorado. This latest round of closures will leave Albertsons with 22 stores in Colorado and 20 in Florida; as well as more than 180 stores in Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Texas, according to CoStar Retail News. (Editor's Note: Albertsons LLC is not affiliated with Supervalu, which operates 463 Albertsons stores.)
SAM'S CLUB
Wal-Mart Store's Inc. in January said it was closing 10 "financially under-performing" Sam's Club locations in the U.S. However, the company also said it has plans to add six more stores this year. Wal-Mart operated 605 Sam's Club stores as of Oct. 31, 2009.
FRENCH CONNECTION
The fashion retailer announced in March it will close the majority of underperforming stores in the U.S. and sell its Nicole Farhi business as part of a restructuring plan. The total U.S. stores to be shuttered is numbered at 17, but F.C.U.K. has not released the specific location of those stores.
MEN'S WEARHOUSE
In its 4Q 2009 conference call, the company announced that due to geographic overlap caused by its 2006 acquisition of the AfterHours Formalwear chain, the company has identified 145 stores that it would likely close.
AMERICAN EAGLE'S MARTIN +OSA
Specialty apparel retailer, American Eagle Outfitters is shuttering its MARTIN + OSA brand, including its 28 stores and online business. The company expects to conclude the liquidation of the MARTIN + OSA stores by the end of July 2010. The company opened the first MARTIN + OSA stores in fall 2006. Those stores carried sportswear and casual apparel for men and women age 25 to 40/
WILLIAMS SONOMA
Williams Sonoma CFO Sharon McCollam said that the specialty retailer intends to shutter an undisclosed number of stores in large, multi-store markets during the next three years.
MACY'S
In January Macy's said it is closing five stores as part of its ongoing effort to weed out under-performing locations amid opening new ones. Following these store closures, Macy's will operate 849 stores, comprised of 809 Macy's and 40 Bloomingdale's stores.
TRANS WORLD ENTERTAINMENT (F.Y.E.)
Trans World Entertainment Corp. continues to whittle down its store fleet. By the end of January, it closed 161 stores during the prior 12 months. This follows 101 store closures in fiscal 2008. Following this latest closure effort, Trans World would be left with 553 stores.
Trans World hit a peak store count of 1,091 in 2006, following its acquisition of Musicland. The majority of Trans World's stores are F.Y.E., but its portfolio also includes Saturday Matinee, Coconuts, Spec's and Wherehouse Music. According to CoStar Tenant, the typical F.Y.E. store is 3,000 square feet and located in an enclosed mall.
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