Updated Monday – City Sports, the first major retailer to open at White Flint’s new Pike & Rose development, will close by the end of the year, according to the company.
The Boston-based sporting goods retailer opened just last November in a 10,500-square-foot space at the corner of Old Georgetown Road and Grand Park Avenue—the new street that is part of the first phase of the Pike & Rose neighborhood.
Eve Bould, director of marketing for City Sports, said a specific closing date hasn’t yet been determined.
“The store is closing because it was underperforming,” Bould wrote in an email. “Like other retailers, we have to constantly reevaluate our portfolio of stores.”
The Bethesda City Sports store will remain open, Bould said. News came Monday that the retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a federal court in Delaware.
According to a statement from CEO Marty Hanaka, the chain plans to close eight locations including the Pike & Rose store.
City Sports was the first retailer to open at Pike & Rose, the $500 million mixed-use development project from Federal Realty Investment Trust. The first phase of the project opened last year and features several retailers and restaurants, the iPic movie theater, the music venue AMP by Strathmore, a 32,000-square-foot Sport&Health club, 80,000 square feet of new Class A office space and 500 apartment units spread over two buildings.
Many of the businesses at Pike & Rose are doing well, but retailers have reported that business has been slow.
Federal Realty provided a prepared statement saying “interest in space at Pike & Rose has never been greater as we move forward with the next phase of the project.”
The second phase of the project is under construction now and will feature retailers such as outdoor store REI, which will move from its existing location farther north on Rockville Pike. Businesses in the second phase are scheduled to start opening in 2017.
“We understand that City Sports will be closing their store at Pike & Rose as part of a restructuring of the entire chain,” read Federal Realty’s statement. “We’re confident we will replace City Sports with a great retailer or restaurant that will be additive to the Pike & Rose neighborhood.”