Sears bankruptcy filing means this longtime Bellingham store is closing

A big-box store with a long history in Bellingham will close later this year.

The Kmart store at 1001 E. Sunset Drive in the Sunset Square shopping center is among 142 stores on the latest closure list released on Monday.

Sears Holdings, which owns Kmart stores, announced that it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in order to try and save the beleaguered company. The bankruptcy also means a Sears store in the South Hill Mall in Puyallup will close.

The Kmart store in Bellingham was the first building in what would eventually become Sunset Square, according to The Bellingham Herald archives. Construction started in 1973 as an 80,000-square-foot store, opening in July 1974.

A Bellingham Kmart employee declined comment on the closure, referring questions about the store to a corporate media line. The number of employees at the Bellingham store was not available, according to Howard Riefs of Sears Holdings Corporate Communications in an email

Riefs confirmed the store is closing and said a liquidation sale will begin shortly.

The building may not be empty for long. Last month, sign permits were submitted to the city for an At Home store, which sells home decor products. Based in Plano Texas, the store carries furniture, housewares, rugs and garden products.

Email messages sent to At Home to confirm its plans for Bellingham were not immediately returned Monday afternoon. If the retailer is coming to Bellingham, it would be the company’s first store in Washington state.

Before Bellis Fair and regional malls, the arrival of Kmart 44 years ago was a big deal to the Bellingham community, according to newspaper archives, which warned readers about traffic challenges during the grand opening.

At the time of Kmart opened in 1974, the Canadian dollar was stronger than the U.S. dollar, making it an appealing stop for British Columbia shoppers.

The Kmart parking lot area quickly became a popular meeting spot for Canadian travelers, particularly those pulling campers and driving RVs.

According to a May 1992 article in The Bellingham Herald, the manager of the Kmart at the time said several hundred campers would stake out a spot in parking lot on busy weekends, something the store welcomed.

Bellingham also was once home to a Sears store and a spinoff, Sears Hometown. The Sears department store at Bellis Fair closed in January 2013, while the Sears Hometown store on Meridian Street closed in July 2017.

This story was originally published October 15, 2018 at 10:39 AM.