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New Jersey kisses last Kmart goodbye

Final store in Garden State set to close in the fall

New Jersey Kisses Kmart Goodbye
700 Broadway in Westwood NJ (Google Maps, Getty)

And then there were two.

The Kmart at 700 Broadway in Westwood, New Jersey, is slated to close for good in September or October, NorthJersey.com reported. The sale spree is already in full swing, as signs on the windows echo the last gasps of other stores gone away: “Everything must go.”

After a Kmart in Middlesex County closed last year, the store in Westwood was the last one remaining in the Garden State and one of only three in the country. Soon, there will be none in New Jersey — a staggering disappearance for a retailer that once boasted more than 2,000 locations across the country.

Five years ago, the demise of Kmart started unfolding when Sears Holding Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, 13 years after Kmart and Sears combined. One year later, Transformco purchased the assets and began systematically wiping out stores.

Between the closures in Avenel and the forthcoming one in Westwood, few Kmarts managed to hang on. The two left in the country are in Miami and in Bridgehampton on Long Island.

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Many of the big-box building locations are being transformed into something else, such as office space. In Riverhead, Long Island, the Feil Organization repurposed a Kmart to lease the Suffolk County Department of Social Services 39,000 square feet, slightly more than a third of what the retailer left behind.

In Cape May County’s Rio Grande, Cape Square Entertainment opened its doors less than a month ago, occupying the space of a former Kmart. The entertainment center includes a 16-lane bowling alley, a 3,000-square-foot arcade and a golf simulator, according to NJ Advance Media. The facility also has an eight-screen movie theater fitted with luxury seating.

Earlier this year, another entertainment center in New Jersey was born out of a former Kmart in the town of Berlin.

— Holden Walter-Warner

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KmartNew JerseyRetail