This is what Sears stores will look like in the future
That's because Seritage Growth Properties, the landlord of more than 260 Sears and Kmart stores, is siphoning off chunks of the stores it owns and renting that space out to higher-paying tenants, like Shake Shack and Dick's Sporting Goods.
In some cases, that means another retailer will take over an entire floor of a Sears store.
In others, like at Pembroke Mall in Virginia Beach, Virginia, the stores are redeveloped and carved up into multiple sections for several different retailers.
Seritage, whose chairman Eddie Lampert is also the CEO of Sears, has been picking up the pace of these redevelopments because it earns a lot more rental income from tenants other than Sears.
Sears pays Seritage about $4.45 per square foot in rent, whereas Seritage's non-Sears tenants are paying about $15.23 per square foot.
What does that mean for shoppers?
We took a look at the Virginia Beach Sears to find out.