COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – Even though officials with Gander Mountain originally said their Coldwater location was not on the chopping block, the new owner of the chain has put up the store closing sign.
St Paul, Minnesota based Camping World, Inc and a group of liquidation specialists this week bought Gander Mountain out of bankruptcy for about $390 million. The Coldwater location is one of 160 Gander Mountain stores.
In March 2017, Gander Mountain had announced it would be closing 32 stores nationwide, but none were in Michigan. A store closing banner went up on the Coldwater location earlier this week, and signs in the window advertise 30% off storewide in the liquidation sale.
Camping World is run by Marcus Lemonis of CNBC TV’s realty show The Profit. He told the Wall Street Journal that Camping World will assume the leases of at least 17 stores with options to keep the others open based on their profits but it’s likely over half of Gander’s stores will shut down.
Just because there’s a banner saying the store is closing, apparently it doesn’t necessarily mean the doors are closing for good. When questioned by the Duluth News Tribune about the closing signs at a local store, Lemonis told the newspaper the signs were posted by liquidators who would be clearing out the old inventory and that it would stay open.
The Coldwater location is in the Willowbrook Village plaza on North Willowbrook Road. Previous tenants that have moved out of the plaza include WalMart and Goodwill Industries. They have relocated to other locations, but several other stores in the plaza have closed.
