On April 25 I wrote that I was worried about a pending bankruptcy for Linens 'n Things and how it may affect the Shops of Grand Avenue in Downtown Milwaukee.
Today, the retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and announced the closing of 120 of its locations, including its Downtown store at The Shops of Grand Avenue and its Racine location at Regency Mall.
It's, though, business as usual for the Shops of Grand Avenue. "Linen’s N Things is a great tenant and we are sorry to hear that they are having difficulty in today’s economy with so many other retailers. To date, The Shops of Grand Avenue has not received any information from LNT regarding the closing of this location. Per our lease agreement, until we receive official word from the retailer, we will continue to operate as usual,"; Erica E. Anderson, Grand Avenue's Director of Marketing andSpecialty Leasing, said in an e-mail.
Linens 'n Things also is closing a flagship location on North Michigan Avenue in Downtown Chicago. It operated 589 stores nationwide as of Dec. 29, 2007.
Read more on the future of the Shops of Grand Avenue here.
A life-long and passionate community leader and Milwaukeean, Jeff Sherman is a co-founder of OnMilwaukee.
He grew up in Wauwatosa and graduated from Marquette University, as a Warrior. He holds an MBA from Cardinal Stritch University, and is the founding president of Young Professionals of Milwaukee (YPM)/Fuel Milwaukee.
Early in his career, Sherman was one of youngest members of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, and currently is involved in numerous civic and community groups - including board positions at The Wisconsin Center District, Wisconsin Club and Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. He's honored to have been named to The Business Journal's "30 under 30" and Milwaukee Magazine's "35 under 35" lists.
He owns a condo in Downtown and lives in greater Milwaukee with his wife Stephanie, his son, Jake, and daughter Pierce. He's a political, music, sports and news junkie and thinks, for what it's worth, that all new movies should be released in theaters, on demand, online and on DVD simultaneously.
He also thinks you should read OnMilwaukee each and every day.