Published: November 20, 2008 09:02 pm      

WHEATFIELD: Steve & Barry’s to close at The Summit

The retailer will close all stores nationwide by early 2009

After escaping a round of closings earlier this year, the Steve & Barry’s at The Summit mall will be liquidated — along with the rest of the company’s remaining 173 stores.

The discount retailer is reportedly going out of business for good, less than three months after investment firms acquired the chain out of bankruptcy for $168 million.

Mall General Manager Brian Marciniak said he had heard rumors of closings but nothing confirmed and could not comment.

David Rizzo, the store manager at the Summit’s Steve & Barry’s location, said he had read news reports of possible closings but had not heard any word for corporate headquarters.

The news of possible closings was surprising, he said — The Summit location had seemed to be performing well given the current economic climate.

“I’ve been thinking we’ve been having pretty decent sales,” he said. “Definitely not like last year, but that’s to be expected in this economy.”

The closing of Steve & Barry’s would likely be a blow to the struggling Summit mall, for which the discount store offered hope for a turnaround when it moved in a three years ago.

Steve & Barry’s is one of four anchor stores at The Summit, the others being Bon-Ton, Save-A-Lot and Sears. In 2005, Steve & Barry’s took over space left vacant since 1998 when department store Jenss left the mall.

The retailer and its owner, affiliates of Bay Harbour Management and York Capital Management, said in a bankruptcy court filing Wednesday that they have joined with liquidator Great American Group LLC to liquidate all inventory in remaining stores by the end of this year or early next year.

“For various reasons, including the general health of the American economy and the state of the retail market in particular, sales at all stores have been disappointing,” the documents filed with the Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York stated.

Steve & Barry’s legal counsel Christopher Fugarino said the company had no immediate comment.

It’s a sharp fall for the discount retailer — in March, founders Steve Shore and Barry Prevor visited The Summit mall store in Wheatfield and the company announced plans to open 70 more stores nationwide.

By then, the retailer had scored exclusive deals with stars like actresses Sarah Jessica Parker and Amanda Bynes as well as tennis player Venus Williams.

“Those three lines brought millions of women who had never heard of or seen Steve & Barry’s into our stores,” Shore said.

But the product lines, along with one from basketball star Stephon Marbury, weren’t enough.

The company is the latest casualty of the weak retail sector, as consumers cut discretionary spending amid a shaky job market, tight credit and prolonged housing slump.

While some stores that have declared bankruptcy, such as electronics retailer Circuit City Stores Inc., still plan to keep stores open, others, including specialty retailer Linens ’N Things and department-store chain Mervyns LLC, have begun to liquidate all of their stores.

Steve & Barry’s LLC, based in Port Washington, N.Y., had 240 locations when it was bought and the new owners had planned to cut that down to 173 stores. The company also named a new chief executive, Harold Kahn, last month. But the drop-off in consumer spending made that plan impossible, according to the filing.

The company is not in compliance with some of its loan agreements and has no prospects for continued financing, according to the filing.

“The appropriate course of action to maximize value for the benefit of all of their stakeholders is an orderly liquidation in Chapter 11,” the filing said.