Huntington Kmart among the latest that will close, Sears Holdings says

Sears Holdings on Thursday announced 40 additional store closings, including a Kmart in Huntington, that the struggling retailer will wind down in February. 

Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based Sears Holdings Corp., which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October, said in a statement the closings are part of the company’s “processes to accelerate its strategic transformation and facilitate its financial restructuring.”

The Huntington store is at 805 New York Ave.

It occupies 102,949 square feet in the Huntington Commons shopping center, according to the website of Urban Edge Properties, a real estate investment trust. The Manhattan-based company’s website says it owns the Huntington property.

Urban Edge could not be reached for comment.

Sears did not respond to an inquiry about how many employees in the Huntington Kmart would be affected.

The 40 stores being shuttered are in addition to the already announced closings of 142 unprofitable Kmart and Sears stores, including a Sears in Garden City, that the parent company said last month will shutter near the end of the year.  

Liquidation sales at the 40 closing stores will begin late next week, Sears Holdings said in the statement.

As of Aug. 4, Sears Holdings had 506 Sears and 360 Kmarts nationwide, after closing hundreds of stores over the past several years.

In January 2016, there were 705 Sears locations and 941 Kmarts.

A Kmart in Riverhead and a Sears store in New Hyde Park will be among 46 unprofitable stores closing this month, the company announced in August.

After all the announced closings take place, Long Island will have three Sears stores — in Smith Haven Mall in Lake Grove, Sunrise Mall in Massapequa and Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream — and three Kmarts — in Bridgehampton, Farmingville and Bohemia. There are also two Sears Auto Centers, in Valley Stream and Massapequa. 

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.comToryParrish1

Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.