Paper work filed with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services indicates 78 jobs could be lost.

JACKSON TWP. The Sears store in Belden Village Mall will close by year's end, according to letters filed with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

Company officials confirmed plans to close the store, adding it to the lengthy list of former locations around the country.

"After careful review, we have made the difficult but necessary decision to close" the Belden Village Mall store, said Larry Costello, publicity director for Transform Holdco., the company that now owns the store.

A liquidation sale is in process, and the store is set to close by the end of the year, Costello wrote in his emailed response to questions. "We encourage customers to continue shopping on Sears.com for all their product needs."

According to the WARN letters — required under the Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification Act — employee separations will begin Jan. 12 or during a 14-day period beginning that day. Closing the retail store will eliminate 70 jobs, while there are eight jobs at the Sears automotive center.

Sears is one of the original anchor tenants at Belden Village Mall, which opened in 1970. In the early 1990s the store employed about 275 people in full and part-time jobs.

The mall is owned by Starwood Retail Partners. Mike Walsh, general manager at Belden Village Mall, noted Sears has been a staple for many years and the mall is grateful for its partnership. The mall is committed to being "a vibrant and community-oriented destination" that brings first class options to the area, he said.

Sears is on the mall's east end and the property actually is owned by Seritage Growth Properties, a real estate investment trust that formed in 2015 to acquire Sears Holdings properties. Over the past 18 months, Seritage has been transforming the location.

The Sears store once occupied two floors and about 196,000 square feet. The store now uses about 73,000 square feet on the main floor with access to the rest of the mall.

Part of the second floor has been remodeled to accommodate a 34,000-square-foot Dave & Buster's restaurant and entertainment center. That business is set to open Nov. 4.

Some of the main floor and the rest of the second floor are being redesigned for new tenants, although none has been identified.

Meanwhile, the Stark County Regional Planning Commission has approved a plan to demolish the automotive center and replace it with a Cheddar's restaurant. The auto center sits on the southeast end of the mall property near the northwest corner of the Whipple Avenue and Belden Village Street NW intersection.

Seritage also owns the property where Kmart is located at 1447 N. Main St. in North Canton.

Sears Holdings, which formed when Kmart bought Sears in 2005, filed bankruptcy last October. Transform Holdco formed in February to acquire the Sears Holdings assets. Transform Holdco didn't respond to questions about the Kmart store in North Canton.

In early August, Transform Holdco announced plans to close five Kmart stores and 21 Sears locations, including a store in the Richland Mall outside Mansfield. At the end of August the company said another 92 stores would close before the year ended, although locations weren't listed.

The WARN letters are dated last Thursday, but weren't posted to the state agency's website until Wednesday.

Reach Edd at 330-580-8484 or edd.pritchard@cantonrep.com

On Twitter: @epritchardREP