WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES JULY 19, 2018 3
Middle Village Kmart closing shop this October
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
RPOZARYCKI@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@ROBBPOZ
Kmart’s blue light special in the
“World’s Borough” is going out
for good, as the chain’s last
Queens location in Middle Village will
apparently shut down this fall.
The discount store located at 66-26
Metropolitan Ave. will be closing its
doors for good at the end of October,
according to a spokesperson for Rentar
Development, which owns the space
where the Kmart is located, above the
Metro Mall.
Rentar’s spokesperson told the
Ridgewood Times on Monday that Sears
Holdings Corporation, which operates
Kmart and Sears, notifi ed them last
week of the Middle Village Kmart’s impending
demise. The store’s lease was
set to expire in January 2019, and Sears
Holdings further informed Rentar Development
that it would not be renewed.
The Middle Village Kmart closing
marks the end of Sears Holdings’
presence in Queens. The department
store chain, suff ering from years of
sales declines, shut down the Rego
Park Sears last year, and is closing
the Kmart location in Rosedale this
September. Both closures were part of
The entrance to the Kmart store on Metropolitan Avenue in Middle Village
nationwide purges of Sears and Kmart
stores as the corporation continues to
retool and reinvent itself.
Locally, the Middle Village Kmart
was the fourth diff erent department
store to occupy that space since Rentar
Plaza opened in 1972. It was preceded
by the long-defunct Robert Hall, Times
Square Store (TSS) and Caldor.
The Kmart’s longtime neighbor at
Rentar Plaza, Toys R Us, closed down
20% off
your entire purchase
Coupons May Be Combined. Sale does
not apply to electrical appliances, items
already reduced, special orders or layaways
or previous purchases. Expires 8/31/18
earlier this year, a few months before
the nationwide toy store chain bit the
dust due to bankruptcy.
“We are already talking to a lot
of potential tenants” for both the
Kmart and Toys R Us spaces at Rentar
Plaza, the Rentar Development
spokesperson told the Ridgewood
Times, although the fi rm declined to
reveal the identities of the interested
parties.
The Fair’s 80th
AnniversaRy Sale!
Photo by Melanie Pozarycki
When contacted by the Ridgewood
Times on the phone, a Kmart representative
confi rmed that the store was
closing in October, but indicated that
Rentar Development had intentions of
consolidating the Kmart and Toys R Us
spaces into a single retail venue.
Rentar Development’s spokesperson
said that rumor was not true,
adding that the company isn’t certain
what’s going to occupy both spaces.
ANNIVERSARY 80th
71-03 80th Street, Glendale (the shops at Atlas Park)����������������������������6
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