Sears Holding Corp. said Wednesday it will close its North Jacksonville distribution center in mid-April as the company downsizes through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.
Chicago-based Sears in April sold the almost 750,000-square-foot warehouse, built in 1990, to California-based LBA Realty. However, Sears continued to lease the facility at 1 Imeson Park Blvd., which distributes merchandise to Sears and Kmart stores.
However, after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October, Sears decided to close the facility.
“Sears Holdings is implementing a strategy to optimize our supply chain resources to meet the needs of our retail business and align with our forecasted volume. As part of this strategy, we have made the difficult but necessary decision to close our distribution center in Jacksonville,” a company spokesman said in an emailed statement to our Jacksonville Daily Record news partner.
The statement said the number of workers affected is “not available.” Employees will have the opportunity to apply for open positions in the company.
The distribution work from the Jacksonville center will be moved to another distribution center in Ocala.
The company operated 866 Sears and Kmart stores nationwide as of August but has announced planned closures of 162 stores since the bankruptcy filing.
Sears still has two department stores open in the Jacksonville market in The Avenues mall and Orange Park Mall.
The Sears store in Regency Square Mall closed in 2016, but the company still owns the 196,214-square-foot property.
There are no Kmart stores remaining in the Jacksonville market.
