Kmart

The owner of the former Kmart building gained Planning Board approval to renovate the vacant store for use as offices for the Suffolk County Department of Social Services.

County legislators yesterday authorized a 20-year lease of 38,555 square feet of the vacant former Kmart store on Route 58. The Department of Social Services will relocate there from its current space on East Main Street.

Riverhead Town officials are considering leasing the vacant 106,000-square-foot former Kmart building on Route 58 for use as a municipal complex. The town would consolidate most departments in one location.

Liquidators have begun working to sell off the stock at the Riverhead Kmart store, which is slated to close its doors Nov. 25. Sixty-five people will be laid off, according to a company filing with the state labor department.

The Riverhead store was on a list of 46 Sears and Kmart store closures released today by parent company Sears Holdings.

Worried by hundreds of Kmart store closings and billions in losses posted by the retail chain's parent company in the past five years alone, the owner of the Riverhead Kmart store is advertising the space for rent, even though Kmart has a lease through February 2020 and hasn't indicated an intention to vacate.