Area Value City stores to stay open

Value City Department Stores has called off the closing of its Boardman and Alliance stores.

The company’s new owners reviewed the operations of 37 stores that were going to be closed and decided to keep 10 open, said Kristin Mack, a spokeswoman for the Columbus-based chain.

She said the stores would remain open “for the time being.” She said the review of these stores would continue but declined to comment on how long the review might take.

Liquidation sales will continue at the 10 stores and then they will be restocked with the same type of merchandise that the stores had before, she said.

Value City Home, a store adjacent to the department store, also will remain open. Value City Furniture was not on the closing list because it was not part of the assets bought by a buyout group in January.

The Home store and department store in Boardman employ 188, while the Alliance store employs 42.

The buyout group consists of VCDS Acquisition Holdings, Emerald Capital Management and Crystal Value. The previous owner of the stores was Retail Ventures, which also owns Filene’s Basement and DSW stores.

Retail Ventures had operated 113 Value City stores but recently sold 24 stores to Burlington Coat Factory.