Sears is closing nine stores owned by the real estate investment trust Seritage Growth Properties.

Sears sent letters to employees of at least two of the affected stores on Thursday, saying they would lose their jobs by July 29 at the latest.

"Employment terminations including your own are expected to commence on July 8, 2018," the letter said.

Business Insider has identified several stores that are closing, based on information from employees.



The list of stores that Sears is closing this year continues to grow.

The company is terminating the leases on nine stores in California, Nevada, Iowa, and Illinois, according to government filings and Sears employees who spoke to Business Insider.

The stores will close in July and liquidation sales will begin on April 27 at most stores, employees said. All nine stores are owned by Seritage Growth Properties, which announced the lease terminations in a filing last week. The filing did not identify which stores would be impacted.

Sears provided letters to employees of at least two of the affected stores on Thursday, saying they would lose their jobs by July 29 at the latest.

"Employment terminations including your own are expected to commence on July 8, 2018," the letter stated. "Please understand that the entire facility is closing, and there are no applicable bumping or transfer rights. We hope to accomplish this closing with the least possible disruption to the lives of our employees and the community."

Sears provided this letter to employees notifying them that their store was closing. Business Insider A Sears employee of 16 years said he was shocked to find out on Thursday that his store was closing.

"I never thought it would happen," he said, describing the news as sudden. He said his store manager found out the store would close on Wednesday evening, and delivered the news to all employees on Thursday morning.

The latest closures are in addition to the 166 stores that Sears had previously said it would shut down this year.

Sears CEO Eddie Lampert launched and spun off Seritage in 2015 to execute sale/lease-back agreements for 266 Sears and Kmart stores. The deal helped Sears raise about $2.7 billion, most of which was quickly burned through to pay off debt.

Seritage has been recapturing many of those stores and then tripling its rent payments by turning the space over to new high-end tenants.

Business Insider has identified several of the Seritage-owned stores that are closing, based on information from employees of each store listed. (The Chicago Tribune first reported the closing of the Chicago store included in this list).

A Sears spokesman directed Business Insider's requests for comment to Seritage. Seritage did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Here's the list of closing Sears stores so far:

Sunrise Mall, 5900 Sunrise Blvd., Citrus Heights, CA 95610

Westfield Galleria at Roseville, 1191 Galleria Blvd., Roseville, CA 95678

Solano Town Center, 1420 Travis Blvd., Fairfield, CA 94533

Parkway Plaza, 575 Fletcher Pkwy, El Cajon, CA 92020

Asheville Mall, 1 S. Tunnel Rd, Asheville, NC 28805

Meadowood Mall, 5400 Meadowood Mall Cir., Reno, NV 89502

Lindale Mall, 4600 1st Ave NE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52402

Marketplace at Six Corners, 4730 W Irving Park Rd., Chicago, IL 60641

Park North Shopping Center, 622 NW Loop 410, San Antonio, TX 78216

Business Insider reported this week that the following Sears and Kmart locations would also close:

Sears at 3500 Oleander Dr, Wilmington, NC 28403

Sears at 7401 Market St, Youngstown, OH 44512

Kmart at 1602 W Brandon Blvd, Brandon, FL 33511

Kmart at 180 Main St, Saugus, MA 01906

If you have information on Sears' closing stores, email hpeterson@businessinsider.com.