Kmart, which opened 35 years ago in central Vancouver, will close its doors for good at 9 p.m. Sunday due to sluggish sales.
The vacant discount store will be turned over to Vancouver-based auto sales company Kuni Enterprises Inc., new owner of the 10-acre site off state Highway 500 at 2711 N.E. Andresen Road. The location is not far from a cluster of Clark County’s largest auto dealers, including Vancouver Ford and the Dick Hannah Auto Mall.
It is a prime location for a new automobile dealership, but not until the market improves, said Greg Goodwin, Kuni’s president and chief executive officer.
Clark County auto dealers experienced one of the worst selling years in recent history in 2009, despite last summer’s federal “cash for clunkers” trade-in incentive program. That’s why Goodwin expects to wait at least until 2013 or 2014 before his company would build an auto dealership on the Kmart site.
“I would hope to do something in two or three years, given current conditions,” Goodwin said.
Kuni has maintained its corporate offices in Vancouver since 2004. The company does not sell automobiles in Clark County, although it operates dealerships in four states: Washington, Oregon, California and Colorado.
Several of Kuni’s dealerships sell brands not represented by the mix of local dealerships and the company would only be able to open a store that isn’t already represented. The company’s options include Acura, BMW, Volvo, Mercedes, Jaguar, Infinity, Land Rover, Mini Cooper and Lexus, Goodwin said.
“We hope to see opportunities come about. We think this is a site manufacturers will like,” he said.
Goodwin said new dealerships can cost between $1 million and $30 million to build.
His company would like to lease the Kmart site temporarily.
Event users could be the best bet for the 84,000-square-foot space, said Pam Lindloff, associate vice president of NAI Norris Beggs & Simpson commercial real estate firm in Vancouver.
“They could use it as a venue for events, like antique shows or for someone who wants to do a one-time bazaar,” she said.
However, Lindloff said the chances of landing a retail tenant were slim, given Kuni’s short-term plans to redevelop in the near future.
“Unless someone new is coming to the area and looking to construct another store nearby,” Lindloff said.
In the meantime, Kmart’s going-out-of-business sale is being conducted by national liquidation company Abacus Advisors, said Kim Freely, a spokeswoman for Sears Holdings Corp. in Illinois, which also owns Kmart.
“Kmart has been staffing the store,” she said.
Freely said the Vancouver store closure is one among 13 stores being closed by Kmart this year, including a store in Bremerton, near Seattle.
Business at the Vancouver Kmart has steadily decreased over the last few years, due in part to the arrival of competitors, such as Walmart, which operates three Clark County stores.
The Vancouver Kmart employed 68 workers when the company announced plans in November to close the site. Staff numbers have shrunk along with the store’s rapid reduction of inventory, marked down by 40 percent to 70 percent.
Inside the store, about one dozen aisles hold merchandise in the middle of the otherwise empty 84,000-square-foot space. On its outer edges stand groups of bare racks and fixtures for apparel, shoes, home furnishings, hardware and cosmetics.
Store liquidation signs remind shoppers that “Everything must go” and “All sales are final.”
