J.C. Penney is permanently closing its St. Louis store in the Hampton Village Plaza shopping center next month after nearly 70 years in operation.

The store's last day will be Jan. 21, Joey Thomas, a spokesman for the Plano, Texas-based department store chain, told the Post-Dispatch on Thursday. A liquidation sale will begin Jan. 2.

The 50,000-square-foot store has about 45 employees. Other tenants in the shopping center include a Schnucks grocery store and Famous Footwear.

"As part of the company’s ongoing efforts to achieve sustainable growth, long-term profitability and an engaging shopping experience across all customer touchpoints, we continually evaluate our store portfolio to determine whether there’s a need to close stores that do not meet all company objectives," Thomas said.

Employees who are not transferred to other stores will receive one week of severance and an on-site career training class, among other separation benefits.

When Penney announced plans to close 138 stores nationwide earlier this year, no St. Louis stores were on the list.

None of the other local Penney stores are slated for closure, Thomas said Thursday. JCPenney has stores at South County Center, West County Center, Mid Rivers Mall, St. Clair Square and the Gravois Bluffs shopping center in Fenton.

The Hampton Village Penney store opened in 1949. The chain had 10 stores in the St. Louis area in the early 1980s, according to Post-Dispatch archives.