Bloomingdale’s in White Flint Mall and Macy’s in Laurel Mall to close this spring

Macy’s Inc. announced Wednesday that it would close five Macy’s stores and four Bloomingdale’s stores nationally this spring,
The Bloomingdale's store at the Mall of America, above, is one of four Bloomingdale’s locations Macy’s Inc. plans to close this year. (Carlos Gonzalez - AP) including the Bloomingdale’s in White Flint Mall and the Macy’s in Laurel Mall.

Terry J. Lundgren, Macy’s chairman, president and chief executive, said in a press release that the closings were part of a process to “selectively prune underperforming locations.”

“We continue to be committed to maintaining a healthy portfolio of stores that allows us to focus on growth from our best and most productive locations,” Lundgren said. “This requires us to make some difficult decisions to close stores that no longer meet our performance requirements, as well as to open stores where we see opportunity.”

The stores will have final closing sales beginning Jan. 8 and lasting approximately 10 weeks. Associates at the stores will be offered positions at nearby stores “where possible,” according to the release, but may otherwise face layoffs. The 259,000-square-foot White Flint Bloomingdale’s, opened in 1977, has 158 associates. The 123,000-square-foot Laurel Macy’s, opened in 1981, has 76 associates.

The other Macy’s stores set to close are in Topeka, Kan.; Parma, Ohio; Antioch, Tenn.; and Texas City, Texas. The other Bloomingdale’s stores to close are Atlanta, Oak Brook, Ill.; and the Mall of America, in Bloomington, Minn.

The two local closings come at malls whose best days are behind them. The owners of both White Flint Mall and Laurel Mall plan major redevelopment projects for the properties that would transform them from malls into outdoor town centers.

Lerner Enterprises and the Tower Cos. announced in November that they planned to turn the White Flint Mall, where Bloomingdale’s owns it space, into a 5.1 million-square-foot mixed used development over the next 25 years. The plans called for the new development to grow around the existing Bloomingdale’s store.

Developers Greenberg Gibbons, Somera Capital Management and AEW Capital Management plan to turn the Laurel Mall into 400 housing units and 400,000 square feet of new retail.

Follow Jonathan O’Connell on Twitter: @oconnellpostbiz