OLEAN, N.Y. — The second store to fill the vacancy at the former Kmart plaza has been announced.
Beginning this week, a large banner proclaiming that Ollie’s Bargain Outlet is “Coming Soon” to the center of the former department store was hung on the structure, which has been undergoing a major renovation. On Wednesday, the sign was still barely visible underneath a scaffolding and plastic envelope constructed for painting the exterior of the new entrance.
Company officials could not be immediately reached for comment.
Founded in 1982, the Harrisburg, Pa.-based company expanded to 100 locations by 2011. Today, the company has 303 locations in 23 states. Five locations opened Nov. 14, according to the company’s website. Area locations include Dunkirk, two in Buffalo, and one in each Warren, Pa., and Clearfield, Pa.
Touting its “semi-lovely” locations — “functional, but not particularly pretty and shiny like those other fancy stores,” according to the company’s website — the company focuses on supplying buyout, overstock and closeout merchandise to consumers.
While the sign posted in Olean encourages prospective employees to visit the company’s website to apply, the website as of Wednesday did not list any positions in Olean, nor did it have the location listed in its “Coming Soon” section.
The 117,946-square-foot building sitting on the city’s western border was constructed in 1994, relocating Kmart in July 1995 from a site off of Route 17’s Exit 24 in the town of Allegany.
The store originally was being downsized, with the pharmacy closing. It was one of 92 pharmacy operations cited in the company’s first quarter report as underperforming and set to be closed. In 2003, officials reported the store employed 90 people.
The property is assessed at $4.1 million, and property taxes in excess of $277,000 were levied by the city, county and the Olean City School District in 2016.
Closing in late September 2017, a $1.35 million renovation began the next month on three retail spaces. The first, Marshalls, opened in late April. Since then, work continued on the middle storefront, with a new entrance added over the fall.
