A day before it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week, Stein Mart Inc. sent a notice to city and state officials saying it would lay off 134 employees at its Jacksonville headquarters in three phases.
The letter to Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry and the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act said the layoffs began Aug. 14, as Stein Mart prepares to close its corporate headquarters at 1200 Riverplace Blvd.
The second and third phases of the layoffs are scheduled to begin Sept. 14 and Oct. 14.
Stein Mart last week said it is closing its 281 stores in 30 states and winding down its business. It filed for Chapter 11 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida Jacksonville Division on Aug. 12.
The WARN letter sent Aug. 11 said the company couldn’t provide more advance notice of the layoffs because of the impact of “substantial community spread of COVID-19 in locales wherein Stein Mart operated a significant portion of its retail stores.”
It also said the company had been attempting to obtain additional financing “and the publication of its financial faltering would have adversely impacted its ability to sure the financing that it needed.”