OLEAN, N.Y. — As one long-time city retailer declares it will close, another is primed to open next week.
TJX officials announced this week that Marshalls, an off-price retailer with more than 1,000 locations, will open its newest location on West State Street on Thursday in the former Kmart building.
“Our newest store in Olean will offer an ever-changing selection of high-quality, on-trend, and brand-name merchandise at the amazing prices that Marshalls is known for,” said Tim Miner, president of Marshalls.
A ceremony will be held at 7:30 a.m. Thursday to cut the ribbon, officials noted, as well as to mark a donation of $10,000 to the Olean Food Pantry.
The store will be open that day from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., with regular hours of 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sundays.
Officials said the store will employ 60 full- and part-time employees.
Kmart operated in the site from July 1995 until September 2017, leaving around 90 employees without jobs.
As the site is within the city limits — a secondary parcel in the town of Allegany was purchased in the mid-1990s to allow for property line setback requirements to be met because the building sits so close to the city line — the city and Cattaraugus County will share the 4 percent county tax rate, while the remaining 4 percent sales tax will go to the state.
Rumors of the Marshalls store began circulating shortly before Kmart closed, and a building permit issued by the city in October declared a portion of the building would be occupied by a Marshalls store. The permit also reported two other store spaces would be created in a project projected to cost $1.35 million.
The store takes up about 20,000 square feet of the 117,000 square feet inside the structure, which was built in 1994. The use for the remaining space, which covers almost 100,000 square feet, has not been announced.
Despite the permit and branded signs announcing the store’s arrival this winter, company officials declined to state the store was coming to Olean until this week.
City officials said they do not know the future tenants for the space, and only rumors have circulated.
