‘Entertainment/food village’ will envelope Sears at Alderwood Mall

The space in Alderwood Mall previously occupied by Sears will become what city documents are calling an “entertainment/food village.”

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According to a Notice of Application, applications for Project Design Review and Environmental Review were submitted to the City of Lynnwood in October.

The project will provide a “variety of retail and dining options” as well as expansion of retail space on the south side of the mall between Macy’s and the Terraces food court.

Earlier this year, Sears Holdings released a long list of Sears and Kmart stores that would be closing nationwide. Two Washington stores were on the list, which, along with the Lynnwood Sears, included the Kmart, at 5132 Sixth Avenue in Tacoma.

On Jan. 4, Sears Holdings announced that a total of 78 Kmart stores and 26 Sears stores would close this spring. That follows hundreds of closures over the past several years.

“The decision to close stores is a difficult but necessary step as we take actions to strengthen the company’s operations and fund its transformation,” the company said in a public statement. “Many of these stores have struggled with their financial performance for years and we have kept them open to maintain local jobs and in the hopes that they would turn around.”

In April 2016, CBS reported that Sears needed to close almost half of its stores in order to survive. Based on the company’s performance index, Sears has been in a downward spiral — much more than other brick-and-mortar stores — and, according to CBS, would have to close 300 locations “to get back to the productivity it enjoyed in 2006.”

Meanwhile, Amazon, which is just one of the companies credited with the downturn of physical retail stores, has opened a “pop-up” kiosk in the mall. A second opened in Southcenter Mall.

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