Carson City building officials say they have been notified by the contractor building the new Sportsman’s Warehouse on South Carson they have been ordered by Sportsman’s Warehouse headquarters in Utah to halt all construction activities. The construction site has been fully enclosed and any openings boarded up, and all but one piece of heavy equipment has been removed.
Reports say that Sportsman’s Warehouse will close 23 of its stores nationwide, including three highly profitable ones in Minnesota, as the Utah-based retailer tries to reduce its huge debt load. In addition to closing stores, Sportsman’s also plans to sell 15 outlets including some to a Calgary Canada company that had planned to buy a majority interest in Sportsman’s. The deal was to infuse Sportsman’s with a $100 million dollar transfer to help pay down some of Sportsman’s outstanding debt. But the deal reportedly fell apart due to the downturn in the nation’s economy.
Reports also say that Sportsman’s has not posted an after-tax profit for the past two years. Sporting goods retailers are among those that have suffered from the economic meltdown that has prompted consumers to severely limit their discretionary spending. Another major sporting goods chain based in Oregon, Joe’s Sports and Outdoors, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week.
Sportsman’s had made a deal with a Seattle developer and the city that they would open their new facility in early to late Spring, and that the city would rebate the developer and Sportsman’s a portion of the sales tax revenues the store would contribute to city coffers. No official comment on these developments was immediately available.
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