This Major Retailer Will Shutter Half Of Its IL Stores This Month

ILLINOIS — Home furniture and decor retailer At Home will close half of its Illinois stores by the end of the month as part of its filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the company confirmed this week.

Four stores across Illinois are among 29 stores closing nationwide in September. Initially, the retailer announced 26 stores would close by Sept. 30, but the retailer recently added three more to its closure list, court filings show.

Here's the run-down on At Home store locations marked for closing in Illinois:

• 5203 W War Memorial Drive, Peoria
• 13180 S Cicero Avenue, Crestwood
• 101 Randall Rd, Lake in the Hills
• 2100 South Randall Road, Geneva

Four stores will remain open in Illinois in Elmhurst, Aurora, Arlington Heights and Downers Grove.

In recent weeks, the company has been running going-out-of-business sales at the stores set to be shuttered.

The company points to a "challenging commercial environment brought on by both broader economic and retail-specific market pressures" and macroeconomic issues like increased tariffs for placing significant pressure on their revenue and cost structure.

At Home now has 260 locations nationwide after reducing its footprint by six stores over the past year. Nationwide, the company employs nearly 7, 200 people. The expenses associated with brick-and-mortar locations, and other issues affecting the retail industry are now causing the remaining stores to be operating at sub-optimal performance levels.

Ownership of At Home will be transferred to a group of hedge funds and other firms based in New York City and San Francisco as part of June's bankruptcy filings. The lenders hold more than 95 percent of the company's debt.

“We are pleased to have reached this agreement with our lenders, which represents a critical and positive advancement of our work to best position At Home for the future,” said Brad Weston, Chief Executive Officer of At Home said of the restructuring plan.

The company joins Big Lots, Joann Fabrics, Kohl's, JCPenney, Macy's and Party City in the group of major retailers announcing closings just this year.