JCPenney outlet store in Gurnee Mills closing

After 15 years, the JCPenney outlet store in Gurnee Mills is scheduled to close around Sept. 5.

Liquidation sales start this Sunday, store Manager Steven Bingham said today.

The state of Illinois reported today that the JCPenney store is among several other suburban companies slated to close or lay off workers this summer. About 80 workers at the department store were told about a month ago that they would lose their jobs.

State and county officials will be meeting with the JCPenney workers on Wednesday to discuss their job-search options or possible positions at other JCPenney stores, said Bingham.

JCPenney opened in Gurnee Mills as one of its anchors shortly after a Sears outlet store closed in that site. But the JCPenney outlet, which offered deeper discounts compared to its regular retail stores, wasn't meeting its financial targets "for the past few years," said corporate spokeswoman Ann Marie Bishop.

Also since JCPenney closed a distribution center in Milwaukee, the Gurnee store no longer fit its corporate strategy, she said.

JCPenney has 19 other outlet stores nationwide. It will open a new regular retail store just across the border in Pleasant Prairie, Wis., by July 31. Some of the Gurnee workers could apply for jobs at Pleasant Prairie, Bishop said.