Sears Closing 5 Stores In Maryland As Company Declares Bankruptcy

MARYLAND — Five stores in Maryland are among nearly 150 locations a national retailer plans to close around the country. Sears Holdings, the parent company of Sears and Kmart, reported in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing that it plans to shutter 142 unprofitable locations in the next few months.

The struggling 125-year-old retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday, the same day a $134 million debt payment was due from the chain. After the latest closures, 12 Sears stores will remain in Maryland.

Here are the locations in Maryland that will shutter, outlined in the bankruptcy filing:

• Bowie Sears, 15700 Emerald Way
• Columbia Sears, 10300 Little Patuxent Parkway
• Oxon Hill Kmart, 6163 Oxon Hill Road
• Prince Frederick Kmart, 835 Solomons Island Road North
• Westminster Sears, 400 North Center Street

Stores will close near the end of the year, the company said in a statement, noting Monday that liquidation sales were expected to begin shortly.

Businesses will remain open for the holiday shopping season, officials said.

CEO Edward S. Lampert will step down effective immediately, the company announced, but will remain chairman.

"Over the last several years, we have worked hard to transform our business and unlock the value of our assets," Lampert said in a statement Monday. "While we have made progress, the plan has yet to deliver the results we have desired, and addressing the company's immediate liquidity needs has impacted our efforts to become a profitable and more competitive retailer."

Over the past year, more than 160 Sears and Kmart locations have closed. Sears has shuttered stores in waves, including 46 previously announced unprofitable locations going out of business by the end of November. Maryland stores remained untouched in that list but some were among previous rounds of closures.

Locations in Dundalk, Cockeysville and Hagerstown closed in the past year. The Sears at Eastpoint Mall closed in January 2018. The Hunt Valley Sears and Hagerstown Sears closed in summer 2017.

Sears reported Monday that it plans to reorganize around its profitable stores.

These are the 12 Sears stores that will remain in Maryland in 2019 (this does not include appliance outlets, HomeTown stores or auto centers):

• Annapolis, 1040 Annapolis Mall
• Baltimore, Security Square Mall, 6901 Security Square Boulevard
• Bel Air, 658 Baltimore Pike
• Bethesda, 7103 Democracy Boulevard
• Cumberland, 1262 Vocke Road
• Frederick, 5500 Buckeystown Pike
• Gaithersburg, 701 Russell Avenue
• Glen Burnie, 7900 Ritchie Highway
• Salisbury, 2306 N Salisbury Boulevard
• Silver Spring, 11255 New Hampshire Avenue
• Waldorf, 11170 Mall Circle
• White Marsh, White Marsh Mall, 8200 Perry Hall Boulevard

Sears, which last year sold off its famous Craftsman brand, has about 700 remaining stores and 68,000 employees — down from the 1,000 stores and 89,000 workers it had in early 2018, according to CNN.

Mohsin Meghji, managing partner of M-III Partners, has been named Sears Holdings' chief restructuring officer, and an independent restructuring committee has been formed.

— By Patch editors Shannon Antinori and Elizabeth Janney.

More Sears coverage on Patch:

• One Maryland Sears On List Of Stores Closing
• Hunt Valley Sears Closing: Report
• Sears To Close Store At Mall In Columbia

(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)