In its latest round of closures, one of the longest-running brands in American history is shuttering its location in Chesterfield.

Transformco, which owns the Sears brand, announced on Nov. 7 that it would be closing 51 Sears and 45 Kmart stores by February, including its 147,000-square-foot Sears location at Chesterfield Towne Center. The store is the last in the Richmond region for either brand.

In a statement, Transformco said, “We have made the difficult but necessary decision to streamline our operations and close 96 Sears and Kmart stores. Going out of business sales at these stores are expected to begin on December 2.” After the closures, Transformco will operate the remaining 182 Sears and Kmart stores in the U.S.

The announcement is only the latest bit of bad news for a company that was the Amazon of its day. Founded in 1892 as Sears, Roebuck & Co., the business pioneered the idea of selling everything to everyone – including appliances, clothing, tools, tombstones and build-it-yourself homes – through its catalogs and stores. Following years of sales declines, Sears’ former parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2018. Since then, it has undergone waves of store closures; in June, Sears was acquired by Transformco.

But what does it mean for Chesterfield Towne Center to lose one of its anchor stores, so-called because of its size and ability to draw a cross-section of the public to shop at the mall?

According to those who follow retail and real estate, not much. Though Chesterfield Towne Center will turn 45 next year, experts say it’s a relatively healthy mall with low vacancy and that mall ownership, Brookfield Properties Retail Group, is committed to reinvesting in the shopping center. Just this year, Brookfield welcomed two new outparcel eateries by local restaurant group HOUSEpitality Family: Caribbean-themed Island Shrimp Co. and the third location of their Mexican concept Casa del Barco.

“I haven’t seen or heard that there’s a lot of vacancy there,” says Brian Glass, senior vice president of retail brokerage for Taylor and Long Properties. “They’ve held [their] own, and it’s a vibrant location at a major intersection. I think that is the vibrant mall in Chesterfield County.”

Even as development in the county has pushed westward and other retail opportunities have sprung up in Chesterfield and abroad – including online – Glass says the mall appears to be in good shape, even with Sears closing.

“I’m not going to worry about Chesterfield Towne Center imploding or anything like that,” says Glass of the Sears closure. “The real estate at Chesterfield Towne Center is a good piece of real estate. Someone will do something with that.”

Robert Gibbs, president of Gibbs Planning Group and author of the book “Principles of Urban Retail Planning and Development,” says it speaks to the potency of the mall that Sears was able to last so long in Chesterfield.

“It’s a credit to the strength in the market and the demographics in that region,” says Gibbs, adding that other businesses are now scouting out the remaining Sears locations as good places to locate. “It’s an indicator that it’s a strong, underserved market.”

With Chesterfield Towne Center’s traditional anchors J.C. Penney and Macy’s still intact, Gibbs says the mall is probably fine, as long as those stay open. As shoppers continually move online and brand loyalty isn’t what it once was, traditional retailers have struggled. J.C. Penney will close 27 stores in 2019; as of May, Macy’s had shuttered 13 stores this year.

“Malls like that are generally well-located with good traffic connection and good visibility, but losing an anchor can be really devastating to a mall,” Gibbs says. “Losing Sears isn’t going to be a catastrophic issue, as long as they still have J.C. Penney and Macy’s. … The challenge is if all those [other] department stores close in the mall, it’s hard for the inline tenants to survive without them.”

Garrett Hart, the county’s economic development director, says the closing of Sears is a chance to bring in a tenant that might better benefit the mall.

“The county views it as an opportunity to do something new and different with a very large space at the mall,” Hart says. “Sears hasn’t operated as an anchor that drew customers to the mall for quite some time. This will give us an opportunity to use that space for something else that will bring vitality and interest to the mall.”

He agrees with Glass and Gibbs about the health of the mall and says that the area around it is still good for retail.

“The mall sits right on the edge of the highest income and spending demographic in the entire region,” Hart says. “It’s got plenty of buying power, it’s got high traffic.”

As for what will happen to the Sears space, there are several possibilities. The two-story, 147,000-square-foot Sears could become home to another major retailer, or split up for multiple retail locations, akin to the T.J. Maxx and HomeGoods combo store that replaced one of the mall’s previous Dillard’s locations in 2011.

“The buildings are easy to repurpose for other uses: another large retailer, multiple smaller retailers, or an office,” Gibbs says.

Glass references Henrico’s Virginia Center Commons and Richmond’s Regency Square Mall as examples of how older mall spaces can be repurposed: Henrico is working with Richmond developer Rebkee to convert Virginia Center Commons into an indoor sports complex and convention center; local swim club NOVA Aquatics has announced plans to transform the former Macy’s South building at Regency into a 50,000-square-foot swimming facility.

“Those two older malls are going to be repositioned,” Glass says. “Regency is far ahead of what’s going to happen at Virginia Center Commons. I don’t know if [a complete repurposing is going] to happen at Chesterfield Towne Center, because Chesterfield Towne Center has maintained itself.”

Reached for comment, Bryon Wall, Chesterfield Towne Center’s general manager, said that in anticipation of the Sears announcement, “Our corporate leasing team has been diligently working to replace Sears and when the appropriate time has arrived, we will announce the replacement.”

Looking ahead, Hart says the addition of entertainment, residential housing and more restaurants are all possible at the mall site.

Though it appears the mall will continue to survive, Gibbs can’t help but strike a note of sadness about the ongoing collapse of Sears, noting its one-time brand loyalty and that it once constructed the world’s tallest building, Sears Tower in Chicago.

“People trusted Sears. At one time, I think I read that 85% of all American homes had a Sears appliance – a Kenmore appliance – in their houses, and more than that had a Sears Craftsman tool in their house,” Gibbs says. “They were a superstar.” ¦