As it moves to close 138 stores nationwide in a streamlining effort, retailer JC Penney will also close a location in Longmont, the city that was home to James Cash Penney’s first business.

The Longmont store, 955 S. Hover Road, is one of four in Colorado that will be axed, along with locations in Fort Morgan, Glenwood Springs and Sterling.

“Regarding the Longmont location, approximately 55 employees are impacted and the store will close later this year on June 18,” company officials said in an emailed statement. “We’ll go to great lengths to relocate esteemed leaders, while providing outplacement support services for those eligible associates who will be leaving the company. Eligible associates who do not remain with the company will receive separation benefits, including an on-site career training class.”

About 5,000 jobs nationwide will be affected by the closures, which include two supply chain facilities in Florida and California. Liquidation sales will begin April 17 at retail locations.

James Cash Penney — whose name would eventually be given to the store he bought in 1907 and grew to a national chain — started his very first business in Longmont, a meat market at 331 Main St.

The JC Penney store has moved around the city for years, first occupying the north side of the Imperial Hotel at 315 Main. After several downtown moves, it relocated to the Twin Peaks Mall and then to the St. Vrain Center, where it stands today.

The big box store is likely to stand empty for some time, as retailers move to smaller footprints to compete with online sales.

Longmont in recent years has had several large-space vacancies that have only recently begun to be redeveloped. The Office Depot at 2251 Ken Pratt became The Wild Game Experience; a Sports Authority in the same strip mall is set to become a trampoline park.

The onetime Walmart on South Hover, empty since 2011, has been demolished and broken up into two parcels of land. One of them is under contract to an unknown buyer, according to a representative for the property owner.

Others, like the Kmart that has been vacant for seven years, have yet to see renewed life.

Tim Conarro, a Longmont-based commercial real estate broker, thinks the redevelopment of JC Penney will follow a similarly slow trajectory.

“I would say it’s going to take quite a long time,” he said. “It’s run down; it’s somewhere off the beaten path.

“It seems like all the retail in town has moved further south.”

David Starnes, Longmont’s redevelopment manager, said he expects more empty stores ahead for Longmont — and the rest of the nation.

The U.S. had roughly 50 square feet of physical retail space per capita in 2015, according to Forbes. Europe has about 2.5 square feet per capita.

“There’s just so much retail in the U.S,” Starnes said. “It’s a nationwide issue.”

Shay Castle: 303-473-1626, castles@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/shayshinecastle