February 10,2016-
Forever 21 will close its Hanford Mall store April 1 according to a notice filed with the State of California. Some 51 worker will be laid off says the WARN notice adding that the “closure is permanent.”
The budget-priced, teen retailer has put their big 80,000sf Hanford Mall building up for sale last fall.
The Hanford Forever 21 store is one of the 4 large anchors at the Hanford Mall and is currently owned by the LA-based teen clothier. The 80,000sf property is for sale for $4 million according to Matt Kircher of DTZ Retail of Sacramento. Forever 21 acquired the building when Gottschalks went through bankruptcy in 2009.
Industry sources say the teen retailer plans to vacate the Hanford store, or most of it, as part of a sale, as it is more space than they need. In most markets the trendy clothing store formats are closer to 24,000sf with many of them smaller than that.They acquired the larger stores when Gottschalks closed in 2009 paying a reported $17.4 million for 13 former department stores across the state including Hanford,Fresno and Bakersfield.
Now they are on a downsizing mission at some of the former Gottschalks locations like, San Luis Obispo who closed in January, Hanford and Yuba City who will also close in April according to this week’s WARN notice