Nearly four months after announcing its "Going Out of Business" sale, Steve and Barry's University Sportswear Store will close its doors, officials said.
The apparel store, located at 37th and Spruce streets, was the first of the chain of 15 sportswear outlets.
The store announced its closing in January, but had not announced a definite date until last week.
Steve and Barry's founder and CEO Steven Shore confirmed the store's departure.
"We are going to be closing at the end of the month [of April], and have officially ended our lease with the University," Shore said.
As for the delay in closing, Shore said that the store was "just trying to sell out [its] inventory."
Vice President for Facilities Services and Real Estate Services Omar Blaik had not been officially notified of the closing until the past week.
"We were on a month-to-month lease," Blaik said. "But we have now been made aware that they will be closing the store."
While officials from Steve and Barry's corporate offices in Great Neck, N.Y., have previously refused to cite a reason for the closure, they now say that the Penn branch is closing because it's too small -- even though the store's manager said in January that one of the reasons for the planned closing was "not enough traffic."
"This was our original store -- it's much smaller than our other branches," Shore said. "While it was originally big enough, we just don't have the room to maintain our current business model."
Shore said that he had not found a larger location in the Philadelphia area, and was, therefore, unable to maintain a Penn branch.
"There were no bigger locations available, and our current space is just too small," Shore said. "Unfortunately, we were not able to obtain a larger space."
But Blaik did not recall Shore and his executives asking about any larger spaces for lease.
"They had never mentioned it, no," he said when asked about Shore's statement.
Currently, Blaik does not have any plans for the soon-to-be vacant retail space.
"There was an interest by some banks for a branch for the southern side of campus," Blaik said. "We will probably arrange something in the summer."
But Blaik doubts that anything will be ready in September.
"I don't think it would be open to the students at the start of the school year," Blaik said. "But I would hope to have an opening for the beginning of next year."
The University will be left with yet another vacancy once the clothing store closes its doors. Campus Market, located at 39th and Walnut streets, closed in March. But Penn recently announced that the Last Word Book Shop would fill a long-time vacancy along Walnut Street near 39th Street.
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