JONESBORO, AR (KAIT) –
All three of the Hays clothing stores in Arkansas are set to close next year, the store’s owner said Wednesday night.
Monte Hays released this statement Wednesday night to Region 8 News about the sale of the building housing the Jonesboro store:
“We were presented with an opportunity to sell our Jonesboro real estate that, after much prayer, we felt we could not pass up. We are taking this opportunity to have a retirement sale and at all three locations. We’ve had a great 35 years in business and feel blessed to go out on top by God’s grace. We are thankful for our short but successful time in Jonesboro and would like to thank all of our loyal customers,” Hays said. “After great success in Jonesboro we have still yet made the decision not to relocate but to retire and enjoy our families. We will close in March 2017.”
He said a family member plans to open another store next summer, called “Hays2 The Next Generation.”
Jonesboro clothing store is closing after the building plans to be sold.
The building housing Hays Clothing Store will be sold to a local technology business, according to Josh Brown of Haag Brown Commercial Real Estate and Development.
Brown said the deal will be finalized by Wednesday.
Hays Clothing will then lease the property until their merchandise is moved. A specific closing date was not immediately released.
Brown said he is unsure what the future holds for Hays in Jonesboro.
“What I can say for certain is that they’ve looked at other spaces and what I can also say for certain is that we’ve had other people that have approached us about wanting to continue to operate that business,” Brown said. “Whether the son does it, a local Jonesboro person does it, whoever to operate some sort of retail business like that.”
The technology company’s name is not being released until Friday afternoon, according to Brown.
Another business will accompany the technology business when it moves into the building.
The name of that business is also unknown.
“We’ve also, through Hay’s owning that building, we had a project put together with a national brand restaurant group,” Brown said. “It kind of got put on hold during this. Now that this is not on hold, the owner of the new technology company is going to move forward with at least building this one building for this national restaurant group.”
The store responded to a customer on their Facebook page confirming the closure.
Hays Clothing opened just over one year ago at 2215 E. Highland Dr.
At the time of the opening, it was estimated that 100 people would be hired.
A local business owner next door to Hays was shocked to hear of the store’s closing.
Seth Southard owns Men N’ Black Tuxedos and says one of his reasons for moving to Heritage Plaza was because of Hays.
He said the closing is not a good thing for his business but it is not a bad thing either.
“It is a niche market with me being a tuxedo shot but traffic is always a good thing,” Southard said. “So when you lose a business that is right next door to you and it’s such a big business, you know, it is a cause of concern. So we’ll just have to see how it plays out.”
Southard said he did see an increase in business since moving to the new location.
Other local businesses were surprised to hear the announcement but none said they expected to see any loss in business when Hays goes away.
Full Story :: http://www.kait8.com/story/33823795/hays-clothing-building-sold-closing-date-unknown
