Tower Records customers will have to start looking for a new place to buy their music and movies.
Tower Records, located across from the Marvin Center in the Shops at 2000 Penn, will be closing its doors. Great American Group Chief Executive Officer Harvey Yellen said in an interview that the store will close when it runs out of merchandise. Last weekend the store put up a large “Going Out of Business” sign on the store’s 21st Street entrance.
The Great American Group, a company specializing in liquidation and asset management, purchased Tower Records at an auction for $134.3 million after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August. Tower Records blamed its failure on decreased music sales, online music downloading and increased competition from large corporations like Wal-Mart.
GW owns the space Tower Records has occupied since 1984, but there are currently no public plans for filling the space, the University said.
“At this time, the University does not have any information about when Tower Records might close and when a new tenant might be in the space,” said Assistant Director of Media Relations Matt Lindsay. The University also does not have information about who the new tenant will be, Lindsay said. A clearance sale at the store began on Saturday and merchandise is marked up to 30 percent off, with music marked at 10 percent off.
“We look forward to a great sale and providing customers with great values on an outstanding array of CDs, DVDs, video games, electronics and more,” Yellen said in a press release last week. All of Tower Records’ 89 nationwide locations will be closing, according to the press release.
Employees and officials at Tower Records declined to comment citing company policy. The Office of Property Management at the Shops at 2000 Penn also declined to comment.
The Shops at 2000 Penn location is Tower Records’ only location in D.C.
“It’s a venue the students enjoyed, as well as other faculty and staff,” Lindsay said. He stressed that the issue will continue to develop as GW searches for a
new tenant.
