December 31, 2022
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The Marshalls store at 1044 Market St. in Center City will close on Saturday, Jan. 14 after 10 years in business. All other Marshalls, T.J. Maxx, and HomeGoods stores will remain open in Philadelphia. Managers and associates are being offered positions at other locations.
The Marshalls store on East Market Street in Center City will close in early 2023. It is the most recent in a series of retail closings along one of Philadelphia's busiest commercial corridors.
The clothing and home goods store, which has been located in a 26,000 square-foot space at 1044 Market St. since 2012, will shutter for good on Saturday, Jan. 14. It's unclear why the chain's parent company, TJX, has chosen to close the Market East location, but a spokesperson has confirmed that managers and associates at the store are being offered positions at other locations.
"We are always assessing and reviewing our real estate strategies, and our decision to close this store reflects that thinking," a spokesperson for TJX said in a written statement. "We are grateful for the loyalty of our Philadelphia customers and invite them to visit our nearby stores to continue to find great values, including the Marshalls on South Swanson Street and the T.J. Maxx on Market St."
There are three other Marshalls locations in Philadelphia, along with four other T.J. Maxx locations. The company, which also owns HomeGoods, Homesense, and Sierra Trading Post, has several other retail stores throughout Philly, its suburbs, and South Jersey. Shoppers can find the closest retailer using TJX's online store locator tool.
Jenel Real Estate, which has owned the Market East property since 2000, is in talks with a prospective retail client for the space, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported. Michael Hirschhorn, president of Jenel Real Estate, said that a deal is "imminent" and could be finalized in the next few weeks, remaking that Philadelphians will be "really excited" about it.
The decision to shutter the Marshalls store is the latest in a string of national and regional store closures across Market East and portions of Center City. Wawa, which is headquartered in Delaware County, has shuttered five of its downtown locations over the last two years, beginning with the closure of the troubled Broad and Walnut location in 2020.
After closing one of its locations on South Street more than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, the convenience store chain nearly synonymous with Philly culture has opted to withdraw from the Philly market in recent months due to what the company calls "continued safety and security challenges."
Stores at 13th and Chestnut streets, 12th and Market streets, and 19th and Market streets have closed over the last year. Employees at each of the stores were offered employment elsewhere. The regional chain still has 38 locations operating across Philly.
Rite Aid, headquartered in Philly, has closed seven of its stores in the city over the last year — primarily in Center City — has part of a company-wide consolidation plan. Though much of the closures at Rite Aid and CVS locations in the city are due to previous overbuilding and the growing popularity of mail-order prescriptions, the Inquirer reported, crime and expiring leases are also to blame.
The soon-to-be-shuttered Marshalls store is located near the Fashion District of Philadelphia, a shopping mall along Market East that was built in 2019 to replace The Gallery mall that stood there for decades prior. The Fashion District struggled throughout the pandemic, and its recovery has been slow, with just about 78% of its occupancy filled as of March.
Despite the longterm project finishing just three years ago, a proposal to build a sports arena dedicated to the Sixers could cause about a third of it to be demolished to make way for the project. Portions of Filbert Street and and the Greyhound bus terminal would also be impacted by the arena, which has drawn criticism from community groups in Chinatown.
