Credit: Dreamstime

The Kmart store in South Burlington will close in mid-January, meaning a half-empty shopping plaza will be entirely vacant unless a new tenant jumps in.

The store at 947 Shelburne Road is closing as part of a cost-cutting effort, according to a corporate spokesman. Some of the store’s 66 employees will be offered severance. Some could be offered jobs at other Kmart stores or at Sears, which is owned by the same company.   

“Store closures are part of a series of actions we’re taking to reduce ongoing expenses, adjust our asset base and accelerate the transformation of our business model,” Howard Riefs, director of corporate communications at Sears Holdings, wrote in an email.

A liquidation sale will start October 25. Kmart’s stores in Bennington and Rutland and the company’s Sears store in South Burlington will stay open, according to Riefs. 

Neighbors have long complained that the Kmart plaza is an eyesore with acres of pockmarked parking, boarded up retail spaces and graffiti. Last summer, fresh concerns arose over truckers who were using the lot as a free, unauthorized campground.  

Environmentalists concerned about retail space sitting unused while green fields are eyed for new malls often point to the Kmart plaza as Exhibit A in a bad trend. 

Hannaford Supermarkets owns the property. The Maine-based chain operates a grocery store near the Kmart Plaza and has over the years offered little public comment about why the plaza, located within the bustling core of Chittenden County, appears to be in a real estate coma. 

Wednesday, a Hannaford spokesman was mum on what might replace Kmart or happen to the plaza in the long run. Kmart’s departure was news to him. “It’s an asset of ours and we certainly want to try and maximize that. There are different opportunities that are being looked at but nothing has been decided at this point,” said Eric Blom, Hannaford spokesman.

The company is responding to recent complaints about the condition of the property, he continued. “That’s why we’re trying to increase lighting at the site and bring seven-day security onto the site,” he said.

Blom would not comment on the duration or terms of the Kmart lease. The store was not asked to leave, he said. Blom kept silent about any specific retailers the company might court. 

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Molly Walsh was a Seven Days staff writer 2015-20.

8 replies on “South Burlington Kmart to Close”

  1. This should be considered as preferable to rural farmland for a solar farm…
    Molly Walsh…has that suggestion come up in your involvement with this story?

  2. Hannaford, (parent company Delhaize) was just bought out in June by Royal Ahold NV, parent company of Stop & Shop, the largest grocery chain in New England, with a June 2016 expected completion of the deal. Could a Stop & Shop be coming to this location?

    It will be interesting to see what happens here, particularly as the current structure is full of asbestos which may be prohibitive to demolish due to the remediation measures needed to comply with regulations, but also with the expected re-birth of the Champlain Parkway, the location is too valuable to let sit empty.

  3. Hi Kathy: I haven’t heard of a solar farm being suggested so far in my reporting on this parcel.
    One of many ideas to explore in subsequent stories about the plaza. Thanks.

  4. Sad for kmart…it willleave a huge hole for some families who find walmart just too far…but now TEAR THAT MALL DOWN….AND PUT UP SOME HOUSING PLEASE….and shame on Hannifords ( loath the store anyway) for sitting on this property and letting it rundown for so many years.

  5. Maybe they should just put a super Walmart in there that would be so much better then Kmart was any day what does everyone else think about that.

  6. That shopping center is sketchville. I stopped going there years ago when some methed out guy with no teeth followed me in his car yelling obscenities over his uncarseated toddler at me. Sadly, he might have been one of the more accomplished patrons of that store.

  8. IT IS A CRYING SAME TO LOOSE K-MART IN SO BURLINGTON. THEN ALL WE HAVE IS THAT DAMN WAL MART. IF WHO EVER OWNS THAT PROPERTY HAD ANY PRIDE THEY WOULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING WITH IT TO IMPROVE IT SO IT’S NOT A EYE SORE. PLUS IT WOULD HELP KMART IN CREATING TRAFFIC. WE NEED IT KEEP KMART – – OFFER THEM A DEAL THEY CAN’T REFUSE. I AGREE SHAME ON HANNAFORDS FOR LETTING THAT PROPERTY GO. ANOTHER SLUME LORD. TAKE THE MONEY FROM KMART LEASE AND PUT NOTHING BACK

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