CHRISTIANSTED —The lone remaining Kmart retail store located in St. Croix will close its doors for good in early August.
The approximately 96 employees of its Castle Coakley location will be out of a job effective August 8, 2025, according to a Transformco letter obtained by the Virgin Islands Free Press.
The letter to a Kmart St. Croix employee (whose name was redacted in a submitted photo) states that Transformco is not renewing its lease in the Sunny Isle Shopping Center.
Employees are advised to considering applying to the Kmart in St. Thomas, which will remain open in the continuing future.
Social media comment posted to Reddit by “Narrow Tomorrow.”
“Eligible associates will receive one week of severance pay for each year of service,” the Transformco letter states.
St. Croix had two Kmart locations going in to 2023, but the Big Kmart sited in the Sunshine Mall in Frederiksted closed its doors for good in June of that year.
The Virgin Islands Department of Labor has not issued a statement to date as to whether Kmart’s planned closing complies with all aspects of the territory’s plant closing law.
The Puerto Rico-based owners of the Sunny Isle Shopping Center reportedly charge $1 per square foot of retail space.
An average space in the outdoor shopping mall is 6,000 square feet, which means the leaseholder pays at least $6,000 per month to be there.
It was unclear how much Kmart was paying Sunny Isle Shopping Center for rent at the time of the former national retailer’s announcement this weekend.
