The Sears store in Ross Park Mall will become part of a company the troubled retailer owns jointly with mall owner Simon Property Group Inc.

The store at the mall in Ross “is one of the 10 Sears stores included in our joint venture with Simon Property Group,” Sears Holding Corp. spokesman Howard Riefs said in an email.

Riefs said the Sears store at Simon-owned South Hills Village in Bethel Park and Upper St. Clair is not part of the venture.

Sears Holdings will lease back the 10 properties from the company formed by the joint venture. The Sears store will remain open, Riefs said.

Sears officials announced last month that the joint venture is part of a strategy to transform the retailer into one focused on its Shop Your Way loyalty program and an e-commerce company with fewer real-estate assets.

The deal values the 10 properties in the joint venture at a total $228 million. In exchange for the 10 properties at Simon malls, Sears gets $114 million and a 50-percent interest in the joint venture.

Sears recently sold its store at Ross Park Mall to SPS Portfolio Holdings LLC for $11.6 million.

According to its annual report, Sears lost $1.5 billion on its operations in 2014.

Bill Zlatos is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 724-772-6353 or bzlatos@tribweb.com.

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