Another large retailer is exiting the Columbus market, but will stay through the Christmas shopping season.
Bed Bath & Beyond, an anchor store in the Clifty Crossing Shopping Center on the east side of Columbus for the past 15 years, is planning to close Feb. 1, the company said.
The announcement follows the lost of two anchor department store at FairOaks Mall, which is about to be purchased by the city of Columbus for redevelopment.
Carson’s closed its Columbus store on April 29, which was nine months after J.C. Penney closed its doors July 31, 2017.
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The Bed Bath & Beyond vacancy will leave a second large empty retail building along the National Road corridor. The former Kroger store has been vacant the past two years after the company moved into its new Marketplace location across Central Avenue on Aug. 19, 2016.
A sign was placed in the Bed Bath & Beyond window Thursday referring customers to the two Bloomington stores and one in Greenwood after the closing.
A manager brought in from the Bloomington store declined comment Thursday, saying all information would have to come from Bed Bath & Beyond corporate offices.
Christina Pastushenko, a spokeswoman for the New Jersey-based retail chain, said the Columbus store’s lease was ending, resulting in its closing in early 2019.
“We want to thank the Columbus community for their patronage and appreciate our loyal customers that have been shopping with us. Our customers can continue to shop online with us at bedbathandbeyond.com,” she said in a written statement.
Information on the number of employees at the store, and whether they were being retained at area stores nearby, was not available Thursday.
A smattering of customers headed in and out of the store Thursday afternoon, and none visibly reacted to the signs in the front windows announcing the closing. The store is known for its stock of bedding, bath towels, kitchen electrics, cookware and storage items.
In federal Security and Exchange Commission filings earlier this year, Bed Bath & Beyond reported it could close up to 40 of its estimated 500 stores nationwide if it could not reach favorable lease terms with property managers. At the same time the closings were mentioned in the filing, the company also said it planned to open 20 Buy Buy Baby and Cost Plus World Market stores, according to the federal filing.
“During the three months ended June 2, the company opened seven new stores and closed two stores. The company plans to continue to actively manage its real estate portfolio in order to permit store sizes, layouts, locations and offerings to evolve over time to optimize market profitability and will renovate or reposition stores within markets when appropriate,” the company stated in the filing.
Bed Bath & Beyond has two stores in Bloomington in addition to a store in Greenwood, along with locations in Indianapolis, Carmel, Noblesville and Avon in central Indiana.
The 21,000-square-foot store in Clifty Crossing anchors the strip mall area along with Hobby Lobby and Best Buy. Nearby stores include Party City and Petco, and Chili’s restaurant is located on one of the out-lots.
Bed Bath & Beyond, founded in 1971, came to Columbus in late 2003. It split space in a former Walmart store with Hobby Lobby in the Clifty Crossing center. The space became available after Walmart moved into a new SuperCenter about a block away.
Then-Mayor Fred Armstrong said most of the properties in the shopping center were in demand in 2003 and that things were “looking really, really good,” when the store opened.
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For information about the Bed Bath & Beyond retail chain, visit bedbathandbeyond.com.
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