J.C. Penney Co. Inc. said June 4 it is closing its Jacksonville store in Regency Square Mall as part of a first phase of 154 store closings in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.
The company’s three Northeast Florida stores were all closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but its stores in The Avenues mall and the Orange Park Mall reopened last month. Those stores are not on the closings list.
The Regency Square store has remained closed since March.
After the company filed a petition for Chapter 11 on May 15, J.C. Penney said the reorganization included a plan to permanently close about 30% of its 846 stores.
The first phase of closings includes nine Florida stores. J.C. Penney operated 52 stores in Florida in February.
J.C. Penney expects to begin store closing sales at Regency and the other 153 locations after getting approval at a June 11 hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas in Corpus Christi.
It said the store closing sales are expected to take 10 to 16 weeks to complete.
Additional store closings will be announced “in the coming weeks,” the company said in a news release.
