Sears Closing Store In Harford Mall

BEL AIR, MD — Sears will be closing in Harford Mall in 2020, a representative for the iconic but struggling retailer said. Liquidation sales will begin shortly, and the closure will happen in the early part of the new year.

The Sears store in Harford Mall is "scheduled for liquidation sales in mid-December and closing in mid-February," Sears Public Relations Director Larry Costello told Bel Air Patch Wednesday afternoon. This was not part of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which he said concluded in February.

"After careful review, we have made the difficult but necessary decision to close the Sears store in Bel Air, Md.," Costello said in a statement. "We encourage customers to continue shopping on sears.com for all their product needs."

Sears is one of the anchors for the Harford Mall, which houses the department store on one end and Macy's on the other.

Mall management confirmed Wednesday that Sears was closing and other businesses are interested in the space.

"We've been in discussions with a number of retailers, and we are in plans to redevelop the building," Harford Mall General Manager Lauri Altman told Bel Air Patch. CBL Properties, which manages the mall, is evaluating "redeveloping anchor locations," she said. "Our objective is to minimize all the downtime between store closures."

Altman could not elaborate on what types of tenants could be moving into the mall or what the redevelopment of the anchor space might look like.

"We definitely have engaged in discussions with retailers and other users," Altman said. "But it's a little too early to give the concrete plan. I assure you that as soon as that plan is ready to be to announced, we couldn't be more excited to share that information with everybody."

Before Sears closes, a section inside is closing up first.

"Lands' End Shops inside Sears stores will be closed as of January 2020," according to a statement from Lands' End.

Signs around the Bel Air Sears advertise 50 percent off Lands' End items.

See Also:

• Sears, Kmart: 4 More Stores Closing In Maryland
• Sears At Security Square Mall To Close
• Sears Closing 5 Stores In Maryland As Company Declares Bankruptcy

Sears declared bankruptcy in October 2018 and by that time already had closed 160 Sears and Kmart locations.

Since then, Sears has been closing stores in waves as it switches to smaller-store formats. Over the summer, Transformco, the company that acquired Sears Corporation, reported the Security Square Sears in Baltimore County was one of 26 shuttering as part of this strategic shift. Since then, another round of closures has included the Sears in Gaithersburg wrapping up business by the end of the year and Sears in Cumberland closing by February 2020.

"It’s sad when any retailer goes out of business, but unfortunately the retail industry has had a large share of bankruptcies," Harford Mall's Altman said. "All of us are faced with that. But we’ve been proactively engaged in discussions. It’s really just too early at this point to tell you what's going to happen."