Published: November 05, 2009 10:14 pm      

Jeffersonville Kmart closing

10th Street Store will stay open through the holidays,

The Kmart located along 10th Street in Jeffersonville confirmed on Thursday it will close its doors following the holiday season.

The company is shutting down the 90,000-square-foot facility because it has decided not to renew its lease at that location.

Company Spokeswoman Kim Freely did not offer a direct response when asked if the closing was a result of poor sales. Instead she said it is a normal course of business for Kmart to determine if it will renew a lease or allow it to expire. For the Jeffersonville location the company is allowing the lease to expire.

According to Clark County property assessment records the owner of the land is Louisville-based Eastmoor Acres Realty Company, Inc. A phone call to Eastmoor Acres confirmed they owned the property, but they were unaware the lease was not being renewed.

Kmart announced the closing of its Clarksville location at a similar time last year, but did cite poor performance as a factor in that decision, according to a previous report in The Evening News.

Currently there are 62 employees working at the 10th Street location.

The associates can apply for open positions at other stores, but there are no plans to relocate the people working at the Jeffersonville store and Freely would not comment on severance details for other employees.

The last day the store will be open to the public is scheduled to be Feb. 14, 2010, and there are currently no plans to open another store in the area, she said.

Kmart has about half a dozen stores in the Louisville Metro area, including one in New Albany along Grant Line Road.

There are 1,368 Kmart stores across 49 states, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to its Web site. Kmart’s parent company, Sears Holdings Corp., is the nation’s fourth-largest retailer with revenues exceeding $50 billion and is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Ill.