Richmond Hilltop Mall, which is already a ghost town, is about to become even more empty.
Mayor Tom Butt announced on Tuesday that Macy’s will close permanently. It is part of the closing of 45 stores across the country for the chain of distressed department stores.
Butt shared part of the letter the city and county received from Macy’s, which indicated that the store would close permanently sometime between March 14 and 27. Its 133 employees will be laid off, although the company said it would help transfer some employees to other Bay Area Macy’s stores.
Hilltop’s JC Penney and Sears store has closed in recent years, making Walmart its last remaining anchor tenant.
In 2017, LBG Real Estate Cos. It acquired the shopping center with the intention of building a multi-purpose space with housing, offices, a hotel and a recently modernized Hilltop Mall. But things changed during the pandemic, and the San Francisco Business Times reported in August that the company renamed the area “East Bay Science and Technology Center” in the hope of “presenting it as a potential new center for life sciences. and biotechnological space “.
The Richmond Standard reported last summer that the mall was only about 16% occupied by retailers.
Once a giant among department stores, Macy’s presence is waning in the bay area and beyond. On Tuesday, the chain announced that it will close 45 stores this year as part of its three-year closing strategy. By the end of 2023, Macy’s expects to have closed 125 stores across the country. According to its website, it currently has 544 locations.
“As previously announced, Macy’s is committed to resizing our store fleet, concentrating our existing retail locations in desirable A and B malls with good traffic,” a spokesman told CNBC.
After the Hilltop Mall store closes, there will be 19 Macy’s stores in the Bay Area, including its location on Union Square in San Francisco.