T-R PHOTO BY LANA BRADSTREAM The parking lot of JCPenney, located in the Marshalltown Mall, remains empty. The chain is closing nearly 30 percent of its 846 stores.

Marshalltown’s JCPenney’s is temporarily closed for now. 

The retail giant joined a growing group of stores filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy recently. 

JCPenney’s corporate office hasn’t named stores that are due to close, but Marshalltown’s store is one of many temporarily closed due to the pandemic. Only two other JCPenney stores are open in Iowa, one in Carroll and the other in Ames. 

“It is still early in the process, and we don’t have a list to share of the stores impacted by the restructuring,” according to a news release JCPenney’s sent the T-R. “As part of our ongoing transformation, we will reduce our store footprint to better align our business with the current operating environment.”

Calls to the local store went unanswered.

JCPenney plans to close stores in phases during its Chapter 11 bankruptcy process. 

Retail stores have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, but they’ve already been on a downward trend. 

The Iowa based chain Yonkers closed all of its stores as of 2018, though it still has an online presence. 

Aside from an emailed news release Yonkers has not returned phone calls to the T-R about possible closures.

“The first phase of closures, including specific store details and timing, will be disclosed in the coming weeks,” according to the release. 

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Contact Thomas Nelson at

tnelson@timesrepublican.com