Cedar Rapids Sears Store To Close

The end of Sears' very lengthy relationship with the city of Cedar Rapids is coming to a close.

After receiving information from a former employee that the Lindale Mall Sears in Cedar Rapids would be closing, I reached out to the local store where a manager referred me to Sears Holdings. Howard Reifs, the Director of Corporate Communications for Sears Holdings, confirmed the sad news of the store's closing.

Seritage Growth Properties is recapturing this Sears store as part of an agreement reached in 2015 between Seritage and Sears Holdings. As a result, the store will close in mid-July 2018. As you may recall, SHC sold 265 Sears and Kmart store locations to Seritage Growth Properties as part of an agreement in which Sears Holdings leases the stores back from Seritage. The store will remain open for customers in the meantime and will begin its liquidation sales by April 27.

 We understand that members may be disappointed when we close a store, but our Shop Your Way membership platform, websites and mobile apps allow us to maintain these valued relationships long after a store closes its doors. As a result, we hope to retain a portion of the sales previously associated with this store by maintaining our relationships with the members who shopped this location. Our members and customers can also shop at our other Sears locations, which are listed at http://www.sears.com/stores.html. The number of associates is not publicly available. Those associates that are eligible will receive severance and have the opportunity to apply for open positions at area Sears or Kmart stores.

Though the statement does not include the number of associates currently employed at the Cedar Rapids store, my source tells me approximately 50 to 60 employees will be affected by the closure. We wish them all the best.

Sears, originally in downtown Cedar Rapids, was part of a big announcement in coordination with Younkers in February of 1956 that they would be moving into a new shopping center in northeast Cedar Rapids. Lindale Plaza opened with Sears as an anchor tenant in September of 1960. Twenty years later, it would become enclosed and renamed Lindale Mall. Sadly, today we know that the Cedar Rapids shopping landmark will lose a business that's been there since the beginning and part of our city for even longer than that.