New Jersey Sears store hit in latest round of closings

The Sears department store and auto center in Watchung, on Route 22, is among the 20 store closings announced by the struggling retailer Friday in its latest batch of cuts.

The announcement today brings the number of Sears and Kmart closings to 260 this year. 

The Watchung store, in Somerset County, is the only New Jersey store affected by this round of closings. North Jersey's Sears stores, in Paramus, Hackensack, and Wayne, were once again spared, as Sears eliminates unprofitable stores.

The Watchung Sears has known for some time that its days were numbered. The company that owns the two Watchung properties, as a result of a deal by Sears to sell off its real estate assets, had previously proposed demolishing the stores and redeveloping the site. The most recent proposal calls for the auto center to be replaced by a movie theater.

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Retail analysts have been writing Sears' corporate obituary for years, as the once dominant chain has seen its sales and profits steadily decline. It typically appears on any list of retailers most likely to file for bankruptcy.

Sears confirmed to The Record that the Watchung Sears department store will close in mid-September, and the auto center will close in late July.

Liquidation sales at the closing stores will begin next Friday, June 30.

"We have been strategically and aggressively evaluating our store space and productivity, and have accelerated the closing of unprofitable stores as previously announced," a Sears spokesman said in a statement Friday.

Sears sold off the buildings that house a number of its stores to a specially-formed real estate entity, Seritage Growth Properties. Seritage has begun redeveloping a number of the stores it controls, including the Sears at Willowbrook Center Mall in Wayne, where the space has been divided into two parts. The Sears store has been moved into one half, and a Dave & Busters restaurant and arcade will occupy the other half.

Seritage also owns the Sears at Paramus Park mall in Paramus, making that another likely candidate for redevelopment.