GRANDVILLE, Mich. - The Younkers department store at RiverTown Crossings mall in Grandville will be closing soon.
Younkers' parent company is a department store chain called The Bon-Ton. That company filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act with the State of Michigan on Monday, April 9.
The WARN document also lists three Carson's stores that will be closing on the east side of the state. It says, "The closing is expected to be permanent." More than 160 employees will be affected by Younkers' closing.
The layoffs of 163 employees are expected to start on June 5. But it's not clear when the Grandville location will close—or if it will close at all. The Bon-Ton filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February and announced Monday investor group intends to acquire the company.
The company released this statement to 13 On Your Side Tuesday:
“We are required to provide notification under certain state and federal laws of possible job losses even as we work diligently to complete a sale of the Company as a going concern. Bon-Ton is in active discussions with an investor group to acquire the Company in a court-supervised sale process. We are encouraged by the interest in Bon-Ton and we hope that jobs will be preserved through a sale process. We remain committed to pursuing the best path forward for the Company and its stakeholders, including Bon-Ton associates.”
The Younkers is one of five department stores at RiverTown Crossings. The expected closing of this department store is following a nationwide trend of brick and mortar stores closing. According to Business Insider, there are more than 3,800 store closures expected this year, including Toys R Us.
It's difficult for multiple big box department stores to survive at enclosed malls like RiverTown Crossings, said Mark Ansara, associate vice president at the West Michigan office of Colliers International, a global commercial real estate organization based in Canada.
"So Younkers is going against Macy’s who’s going against JC Penney who’s going against Sears," Ansara said. "You just get so much competition there. At some point, the chips are going to fall on one or two of them."
If Younkers leaves, it's not likely RiverTown Crossings will fill the space with another department store., he said.
"It’s going to be a challenge for them to fill that," Ansara said. "In being two levels, it might be even more difficult. We don’t expect it to probably be another retailer to go there. It’s probably going to be some other type of business."
In March 2017, the Sears department store at Woodland Mall in Grand Rapids also closed its doors. The Sears building was torn down and is being renovated into a Von Maur, which is expected to open in 2019.
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