Macy’s unloads five stores

Macy’s Inc. is living up to its promise to downsize.



The department store giant announced it has sold five stores to General Growth Properties for $46 million. All but one of the locations will be closed by spring 2017.



The stores involved in the sale are in the following locations: Carolina Place in Pineville, North Carolina; Oakwood Mall in Eau Claire, Wisconsin; Quail Springs Mall in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Greenwood Mall in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and Tysons Galleria in McLean, Virginia. Macy’s said it will keep operating the store at Tysons Galleria, leasing it back from General Growth.



Four of the stores were sold in the third quarter and one – the Greenwood Mall store – was sold earlier in the year. The purchase price of the four stores was $46 million. (The purchase price of the Greenwood site was not disclosed.) The retailer said the sale is part of its plan, announced in August, to reallocate investments to the company’s top performing stores, rethink its real estate investments and focus on its digital strategy. At that time, Macy’s also announced it planned to close 100 stores nationwide.



Macy’s currently operates about 880 stores in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico.