| By Big Radio News Staff |
Janesville’s Joann Fabric store is slated as one of hundreds of stores the company says it will permanently close as it faces restructuring out of bankruptcy.
The Joann store at 2700 N. Pontiac Drive is slated to close alongside 15 other store locations in Wisconsin that Joann has announced it will shutter.
In all, Joann says it aims to shut 500 of its 800 stores across 49 states in the U.S.
Joann says its nearby stores in Madison, Watertown and Lake Geneva are also closing. Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota also will see numerous Joann Fabric stores close.
This comes after Joann entered bankruptcy early in 2024.
On a web page Joann built to lay out its plans to employees and customers, the company says it’s “right-sizing” its brick-and-mortar store footprint — something Joann says in a statement “is a critical part of our efforts to ensure the best path forward for Joann.”
The company has given no timeline for the store closings.
Joann has been in the retail cloth and decor business for more than 80 years.
Joann’s financial woes are not unique to retail. The company reports it was in debt between $1 billion and $10 billion at the beginning of last year.
The company blames sagging consumer demand that comes at a time when retailers face continued inflation in shipping costs.
It’s a similar plight that another retailer, Big Lots, says led it to liquidate and shut down many of its U.S. store locations over the last six months — including Janesville’s former Big Lots store at Milton Avenue.
Local brokers say the Janesville Big Lots building is now on the market for lease.
Along Janesville’s Milton Avenue and Humes Road, commercial property brokers say about 65,000 square feet of midsize box store space is open between three different locations besides the Joann store.
The Joann closure will add an additional more than 10,000 square feet of midsize box store vacancy on the city’s northeast side.
Janesville’s Joann Fabric has been one of several storefronts that launched at a renovated former Menard’s store on Pontiac Drive. It opened in 2019.
A Madison developer who renovated the former building in 2018 and added a Joann, a Ross Dress for Less, a Five-Below store and a PetSmart store continues to be the listed owner, according to city tax records.
Janesville’s Joann previously was in the Creston Park Mall off Milton Avenue, but the store relocated to 2700 N. Pontiac Drive when the former Menard’s got revamped.
