The fate of City Sports was sealed when it deviated from its strategy to expand to suburban markets, its chief executive said yesterday, the Boston Globe reported today. Marty Hanaka said that his company’s opening of several stores in far-flung suburbs like Manhasset, N.Y., and Rockville, Md., proved to be the big money-loser that led to its bankruptcy filing last month. “Those stores had very, very high rent expenses, and they really fell short of their anticipated volume,” said Hanaka, a longtime retail executive and investor in City Sports who became its chief executive less than three months before it filed for bankruptcy. The Boston retailer, which filed for bankruptcy protection last month, failed to find a buyer to continue to operate the chain. After initially hoping to close eight of its stores and sell 18 for a new owner to operate, City Sports confirmed Wednesday that all 26 of its locations would be closed by the end of the year. Hanaka said that investors had expressed interest in continuing to operate the chain’s remaining 18 stores, but with the holiday shopping season coming up, no one could top the offer from Hilco Merchant Resources LLC, part of Hilco Global of Northbrook, Ill., and Gordon Brothers Retail Partners LLC of Boston, which plan to liquidate the remaining stores’ inventory by the end of the year.
