Oct. 22--The Sears store along Garners Ferry Road store will close early next year.

"It is a poor performing store," spokeswoman Kimberly Freely said Tuesday.

The Southeast Richland store opened in early 2005 as part of a concept of freestanding stores known as Sears Grand.

The store at East Pointe Plaza will close to the public in mid-January. Sears will turn over the building to its landlord on January 31.

"I think it's kind of a blow to the area, because that's a big center that needs to be revitalized, and it's never helpful when the anchor goes dark," said Rox Pollard, manager of Colliers Keenan Retail Services Group, which is not affiliated with East Pointe Plaza.

The Sears closing comes two months after Dillard's department store announced the closing of its Columbia Place Mall location. That store is closing in two weeks on Nov. 4.

Some of the Sears store's 80 employees will be offered severance packages based on length of service and how many hours a week they work, Freely said.

Freely said she hopes employees who lose their jobs will apply for new positions at other Sears Holdings Corp. stores, which includes Kmart.

Sears has stores at Columbia Mall and Columbiana Centre.

The Garners Ferry store opened in a space vacated by Wal-Mart, which moved across the road.

The shopping center is owned by Phillips Edison & Co., which also owns Dutch Square Mall, Fashion Place on Decker Boulevard and 15 other properties around South Carolina.

Efforts to reach Phillips Edison & Co. officials Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Pollard said part of the problem is that the store was not marketed adequately to compete with stores like Target and Wal-Mart.

"I'm not sure there was ever a strong commitment on the part of Sears to the Sears Grand concept -- my own shopping experience in the store was that it was a very nice place to shop, but the brand was not promoted."

In mid-2008, occupancy was 93 percent for the real estate market that runs approximately from Lower Richland High School to Fort Jackson Boulevard and Devine Street.

"Adding 85,000 square feet (of empty space) is definitely going to make that number go down," said Ron Anderson, vice president of research and technology for NAI Avant, which is not affiliated with East Pointe Plaza.

Since the plaza already has several vacancies, the new opening might give the owners an opportunity for redevelopment, he said.

Reach Reid at (803) 771-8378.

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