Lamonts To Close Store At U-City

Lamonts Apparel Inc. announced on Thursday that it will close its University City Shopping Center store as part of an effort to emerge from bankruptcy.

The U-City store opened in August 1991 and employs between 30 and 40 people, said Rivian Bell, a spokesperson for Lamonts.

Four stores - out of the company’s chain of 42 - have been slated for closure due to poor performance. Stores in Hillsboro, Ore., Missoula, Mont., and Twin Falls, Idaho, also will be closed.

“Each of these stores has been an underperformer due to specific market conditions or inadequate store size,” Alan Schlesinger, chief executive officer of Lamonts, said in a press release.

Spokane’s two other stores, at Manito Shopping Center and Shadle Center, and Coeur d’Alene’s store will remain open.

The stores due to be closed will hold going out of business sales in November and will close after the Christmas shopping season, Bell said.

Lamonts is based in Seattle and employes about 1,600 people. The company went into bankruptcy in January 1995 and hopes to emerge in January 1997, Bell said.

, DataTimes