LAYTON — A pair of Utah JCPenney stores, both in the northern reaches of the state, will close their doors this summer as part of a companywide downsizing.

The American department store chain announced earlier this month it would close 154 stores nationwide, a move that comes on the heels of the company’s May 15 Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. The Layton Hills Mall JCPenney and another store at the Cache Valley Mall in Logan are among the stores slated to close.

According to a press release from the company, the stores will begin liquidation sales on Friday, June 12. The sales will likely take 10 to 16 weeks to complete. The company expects additional phases of store closings to begin in the coming weeks.

In the press release, J.C. Penney CEO Jill Soltau said the downsizing effort was an “extremely difficult decision,” but necessary in order for the company to recover from both the Chapter 11 filing and the COVID-19 pandemic. The company temporarily closed many of its 850 stores around the United States during the early months of the pandemic. According to the release, 500 of those stores had reopened as of June 4.

The company is over 100 years old and has operated in Layton for several decades. Layton Mayor Joy Petro said she was disappointed but not surprised by the closing announcement.

“We hate to see any businesses close their doors in Layton,” she said. “But a lot of businesses have been really struggling during this pandemic.”

Layton Community and Economic Development Director Chad Wilkinson also expressed disappointment in the news and said his department would serve as a resource for the mall when the time comes to recruit a new tenant.

Lon Crowell, deputy director of the CED department, said the precise impact of the closing to Layton’s bottom line is not yet known but will mean a loss in city sales tax revenue. With one of the busiest commercial districts in Northern Utah, Layton has traditionally had one of the strongest sales tax bases in the area. When the City Council adopted a 25% property tax increase last year to pay for a new fire station, it was the first property tax increase in Layton in more than 30 years.

Utah JCPenney stores in Riverdale, Sandy, South Jordan, West Valley City, Provo and Saint George will remain open.