BILLINGS — At Home, located at the corner of King Avenue and 24th Street West in Billings, announced its store will close at the end of September after the decor retailer filed for bankruptcy earlier this month.
The store will now be joining the cemetery of closed big box stores on King Avenue in Billings, including JoAnn Fabrics, Bed, Bath & Beyond, and Shopko Optical.
MTN asked retail experts in Billings what factors are responsible for the closures.
Learn the major reasons At Home in Billings has closed in the video below:
If you happened to visit the shopping center on the 2000 block of King Avenue West just 10 years ago, cars would've filled the parking lot, and stores would've filled the strip mall.
But after At Home closes its doors, the complex will be completely vacant.
RELATED| At Home closing 26 stores nationwide, including in Billings
The news of the decor retailer closing was shocking to Powell, Wyo., resident Grace Peterson, who spent Tuesday afternoon shopping in Billings with her friend.
"Everything's having to close... It's just sad to see all the stores, you know, going away and closing up," Peterson told MTN.
Peterson said she prefers the in-store shopping experience, as opposed to shopping online. It's one of the reasons she and her friend travel to Billings from Wyoming: the shopping.
"I just love the brick-and-mortar stores. What's wrong with that? You know, why are we having to resort to one-click shopping?" she said.
Peterson's grief regarding the big box retailer was understood by Ashley Kavanagh, a former business owner and current senior director of recruitment and community development with Big Sky Economic Development.
"As a former business owner, what I can say is, I share that feeling with them, in that whenever I saw businesses close or retire, we never want to see that," Kavanagh said Thursday.
Kavanagh has been in her role for two years at Big Sky Economic Development. The public-private partnership organization works to grow Yellowstone County's economy and consumer options by providing businesses resources to expand.
Kavanagh said that even though several businesses are closing in the community, Billings is still growing and has a strong economy.
"I think anywhere around that area (King Avenue), you're seeing lots of traffic, and it's just a turnover that's natural for any economy, including ours," she said.
Both Kavanagh, and Steve Corning, the CEO of Corning Companies, agree that big-box store closures in the city are a part of a larger national trend.
Corning Companies has been developing commercial real estate in Billings since the 1970s, and Corning himself helped develop Shiloh Crossing and King Avenue.
Corning said a major part of the reason At Home and JoAnn Fabrics have filed for bankruptcy is because of investors' high debt from private equity.
"Private equity is big pools of money that is controlled by a very limited number of people. They often go in and buy public companies, take them off the New York and NASDAQ exchanges, and then they own them privately," Corning said Tuesday.
Corning said when investors privately purchase companies, it typically comes with a lot of debt. In JoAnn Fabrics and At Home's case, Corning said they are now "crushed with too much debt," and are unable to pay it off, especially considering increased interest rates and construction inflation.
"There's a lot of reasons that we don't always know... I think this trend is playing out all over the country," he said.
MTN asked Corning if tariffs or online shopping also contributed to the companies filing for bankruptcy. He said those factors were just icing on the cake.
"I think that almost all of the retailers that we're aware of, are going to be impacted by tariffs... I do think people think that (online shopping) is a much bigger presence than it is," Corning said Tuesday.
Corning and Kavanagh also said that Billings is not a part of the reason At Home is closing in Billings.
While 26 out of the 260 stores nationwide will be closing in September, they expect other stores to follow suit.
"It just could be that our market in the west was chosen first, and then they may move east," said Kavanagh.
As far as what will be occupying the former Costco and At Home space, it's still up to be determined. Rumors have swirled on social media that the complex will become a go-kart facility or a new grocery store, but neither Kavanagh nor Corning know what will occupy the space.
The former Costco has about 142,000 square feet of real estate, and At Home has about 100,000 square feet.
Corning said it would be more financially feasible for one large business to occupy each of the spaces, as opposed to dividing the space up for multiple businesses. He said this is also because of high interest rates and increased costs of building materials.
"There are very, very few tenants of that size... I think you can probably just go down the list of national players that aren't in the market, but there aren't that many. There are fewer retail entities now then there were 10 years ago," said Corning.
Kavanagh said she invites consumers to imagine At Home's closure as an opportunity for growth in Billings, rather than a setback.
"We've had a lot of positive interest in Billings. One thing about our economy is we are a year-round economy... We have a lot to look forward to, not only that our local community can take advantage of in Billings, but what the whole region can, as well," she said.
