Kohl’s at Southridge will close on Sept. 29
The Kohl’s store at Southridge Mall will close Sept. 29, little more than a month after the nearby Boston Store shuts its doors for good.
The double blow will leave the Greendale mall, one of the largest shopping centers in Wisconsin, with vacancies in three of its five anchor spots.
One of those spots will be partly filled this fall, when Dick’s Sporting Goods and Golf Galaxy open in space formerly occupied by Sears.
A Kohl’s spokeswoman wouldn’t say when the Southridge store will close, but signs at the entrances give the date as Sept. 29.
The following day, the signs announce, Kohl’s will open the new store it has been building about a mile and a half away, in the 84 South development in Greenfield. Signs at the Greenfield location also say that the new store there will open on Sept. 30, with a grandopening event set for Oct. 6.
Much of the merchandise on the lower level of the Southridge Kohl’s has been thinned out. Brand signs have been removed from the walls, and about a third of the lower level is largely bare.
Signs posted Tuesday at the Southridge Boston Store, meanwhile, say the location will close in 14 days.
Boston Store is part of the bankrupt Bon-Ton Stores Inc. chain, which is being liquidated. Overall, 77 percent of the merchandise across the 212-location company has been sold, an executive with the liquidation firm said this week.
The great majority of the in-line retail spaces at Southridge are occupied, and two anchors remain — Macy’s and J.C. Penney.
Besides attracting Dick’s, Southridge has lined up amusement center Round 1 Entertainment for part of the former Sears space. Little Rock, Ark.-based department store chain Dillard’s Inc., meanwhile, is considering opening a store at Southridge, as well as at Boston Store locations that soon will close at Mayfair and Brookfield Square.
Kohl’s move from Southridge to the open-air 84 South complex offers a better fit with the Menomonee Falls-based retailer’s overall strategy.
For one thing, the new store will cover 55,000 square feet — 30,000 fewer than the Southridge location. Kohl’s has been favoring smaller stores — or in some cases, less inventory in larger stores — as it seeks to manage costs in the face of competition from online and discount retailers.
And Kohl’s has long preferred freestanding or strip-mall locations — an approach that is viewed by many analysts, and by Kohl’s management, as an advantage in a tough environment for traditional department-store retailers.
Stores such as the two-level Southridge location are increasingly rare for Kohl’s. Fewer than 10 percent of its fullsize stores are in enclosed shopping centers.