After months of negotiation, Best Buy and Camino Real Marketplace have reached a deal for the consumer electronics retailer to open a store in the Goleta shopping center as early as next spring or summer. Best Buy will move in to space vacated by CompUSA at 7090 Marketplace Drive.
Despite the good news, the center will soon have another vacancy as Linens-N-Things is throwing in the towel after the New Jersey-based chain declared bankruptcy earlier this year. “Going out of business” signs were posted in the Goleta store Thursday and liquidation sales begin Friday at the company’s 371 outlets.
Minneapolis-based Best Buy is the nation’s leading retailer of technology and entertainment products and services. Through more than 980 retail stores across the United States, the company sells consumer electronics, home-office products, entertainment software, appliances and related services. Community partnerships are a hallmark of the company, which this year has donated a combined $31.8 million to improve the vitality of its stores’ communities. Currently, the closest Best Buy is at 2300 N. Rose Ave., Oxnard.
“Best Buy is the best at their business, and we are thrilled to add them,” Marketplace owner Mark Linehan said. “We are very proud of the diversity of retail stores and community services we offer here, and this addition rounds out the Marketplace nicely.
“Moreover, I’m sure the city of Goleta will be pleased with the additional sales tax generation.”
Mark Ingalls, Marketplace property and general manager, told Noozhawk in May that Best Buy was a likely replacement for CompUSA, given that Best Buy had tried unsuccessfully to claim a spot at the center when it was built in 1998.
“They very much want into this market,” Ingalls said then. “Frankly, we think they’d be a good fit for Goleta as well.”
CompUSA foundered as a nationwide chain and last year was sold to a liquidation company that began the process of shutting down the 100 or so remaining stores. The Goleta store closed in mid-February.
Linens-N-Things filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May. A judge approved the chain’s liquidation plan this week after the company failed to find a buyer.
“We are sorry to see the Linens liquidation,” Linehan said. “This had had been one of Linens-N-Things most profitable stores in their chain. We are, however, very excited with the potential prospects that have emerged to take their space and look forward to making an announcement of another great company coming to the Camino Real Marketplace once the Linens bankruptcy liquidation has completed.”
More than $1 billion of name-brand home merchandise will be sold at discounts up to 30 percent, according to the consortium of liquidation companies that received bankruptcy court approval to begin the sales. The liquidation is expected to wrap up by the end of the year.
Noozhawk publisher Bill Macfadyen can be reached at wmacfadyen@noozhawk.com.
