CHICAGO _ Sears Holdings Corp. is closing 20 more stores.
Those closings _ including 18 Sears and two Kmart stores _ follow 150 stores Sears shuttered in the first quarter of this year and another 66 expected to close by early September.
The latest 20 are among the 235 locations Sears, headquartered outside Chicago, sold to its real estate investment trust spinoff, Seritage Growth Properties, in 2015. Seritage reported the closings in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Friday.
"We have been strategically and aggressively evaluating our store space and productivity and have accelerated the closing of unprofitable stores as previously announced," Sears spokesman Howard Riefs said.
Sears' agreement with Seritage lets it end its leases at unprofitable stores in exchange for payment of one year's rent.
Stores are expected to start liquidation sales by June 30 before closing in September.
