Laurel Mall Macy’s Set To Close
Macy's will close after 31 years. Penn Camera in Laurel will also close.
Macy’s, Laurel Mall’s oldest anchor store, is set to shut its doors.
The Baltimore Business Journal reports that Macy’s Inc., will close its Laurel location in early spring along with Bloomingdale’s at White Flint Mall on Rockville Pike in Montgomery County.
Closing the two stores would eliminate 234 jobs, though laid off associates may be offered positions at nearby stores.
Macy's has been in Laurel Mall since 1981. Years of decline at the mall left Macy’s, along with Burlington Coat Factory, its only anchors. Last year, a new developer stepped in to head the mall's redevelopment but could not confirm if Macy’s would be a part of the new center.
By Wednesday, news of the store's closure had yet to reach most store workers.
Store employees contacted by Laurel Patch said they were not aware that the store was set to close.
Still, the store is expected to ramp up for a final clearance sale starting Sunday and lasting for 10 weeks. In all, Macy’s will close five stores and four Bloomingdale’s in the United States at a cost of $25-$30 million during its current fourth quarter.
At the same time Wednesday, Penn Camera Exchange, a photography supply store headquartered in Beltsville, announced on its Web site it is closing a majority of its stores after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The closings include the company's Laurel store on Domer Avenue.
“A dramatic decline in sales performance during the preceding holiday period has precipitated this action,” the store said on its web site.
In This article
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Macy's
14828 Baltimore Ave, Laurel, MD -
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Penn Camera Exchange
352 Domer Ave, Laurel, MD
tanisha
5:38 am on Thursday, January 5, 2012
I guess this is Laurel Mall Redevelopment Charging Forward?
hmj
8:06 am on Thursday, January 5, 2012
So sad --- this is the continued decline. Now it will be hard to find nice stores willing to locate in the area. Redevelopment will not be successful.
cynthia
11:32 am on Thursday, January 5, 2012
They orchestrated their own demise by providing sub-par selections with sub-par service in a sub-par shopping environment.
John Floyd II
12:04 pm on Thursday, January 5, 2012
Unfortunately, Macy's in particular and Laurel Mall in general have been hobbled for many years by being located in a "sub-par", steadily-declining neighbourhood and no amount of revitalisation or new construction is going to change that ugly fact, especially in such hard times. Had Macy's continued to market their usual high-quality goods at Laurel Mall, they would've closed shop long ago simply because those who can afford such merchandise would much rather go shopping in safer, more attractive surroundings. Macy's, Penn Camera, Melody Record Shops, Borders Books & Music, Tower Records, Highs Dairy Stores, Sears, Kodak... the list of local, regional, and national business failures goes on and on, yet the "Guv'mint" keeps on trying to convince all of us that the Great Recession ended more than two years ago? Rubbish! Total bloody rubbish!
Elle
10:33 am on Monday, January 9, 2012
Macy's hasn't been there since 1981. It was a Hecht's before it was a Macys!
grouchypuppy
2:38 am on Wednesday, January 18, 2012
I have always been surprised that Macys lasted as long as it did, being that it is on the BACKSIDE of a defunct shopping mall in a declining neighborhood. I recently bought some suits from there for my new job. The sales associate was very nice and helpful. He said most outsiders had no way of knowing the store is even there and they depended on local "loyals." (It isn't visible from route 1 and there isn't any siganage along route 1) It sure is going to be a hard sell to get retailers to sign on for the new shopping center now that Macys is gone. Burlington Coat Factory just isn't enough to keep a mall or shopping center busy. What's going on with the revitalization anyway? Seems to me that a mall or even another "strip mall," is the last thing Laurel needs anyway.
John S
7:43 am on Wednesday, January 18, 2012
http://www.baltimoresun.com/explore/howard/publications/laurel-leader/ph-ll-macys-closing-20120105,0,6878700.story
This links to the Laurel Leader January 5, 2012 Laurel Macy's closing story
Excerpt
According to Tom Fitzpatrick, president and chief operating officer for Greenberg Gibbons, Macy's announcement did not come as a surprise.
"We have been aware that Macy's was leaving the Laurel Mall as part of its plan to close several stores across the country," Fitzpatrick said in a statement. "This does not change our approach and we are continuing to finalize our development plans to create a vibrant new town center for Laurel."
Previous artist renderings from the company had shown Macy's at the center of that town center, the construction of which will displace the remaining tenants of the mall as well.
While Laurel Mayor Craig Moe successfully asked Greenberg Gibbons to delay demolition of the mall until after the holidays, that demolition is now on the horizon.
Fitzpatrick said Greenberg Gibbons has been in "continual communication" with the mall's tenants during the past year about their plans, and that the company will "certainly honor" the 30 to 90-day lease agreements those tenants hold with the company.
"For businesses that want to stay local," Fitzpatrick added in his statement, "there is a variety of nearby retail space that is available where they can relocate."
End excerpt