Party City closes one Naples site, shifts staff and inventory to other

The party is over for the Party City at Pine Ridge Crossing.

After nearly 20 years in business, the store has quietly closed. It opened in the busy retail center at the southwest corner of Pine Ridge and Airport-Pulling roads in 1997.

The store didn't have a liquidation sale or offer big discounts on merchandise ahead of the closing. Its last day of business came and went without much fanfare Monday.

"Yesterday was our last day open. We are officially closed," said an employee who answered the phone Tuesday.

Dennis Thomet, the general manager for the newer and bigger store in Park Shore Plaza off U.S. 41 farther south in Naples, described the closing as more of a consolidation.

"We're not going out of business," Thomet said.

Many of the employees who worked at the older store have been transferred to the new one, and merchandise is following them.

When the larger store opened in August 2015, Thomet said the other one would remain open, though the locations were less than 3 miles apart. It's not clear what changed Party City's plans.

Thomet referred a reporter to the corporate office for more specifics about the closing.

A company spokeswoman for the discount party supply chain couldn't be reached to comment.

The new store is nearly twice as big as the closed one — and it offers more products and more services, from cards and candy to costumes and custom-made banners.

A day before the larger location opened next to the Burlington Coat Factory last year, Thomet said it was built to meet growing local demands.

"It's a good-size store, and the whole reason for that is to make the offerings to the customers that they've showed us they want to have," he said at the time.

Giovanna Aiello, a barista at Sunburst Cafe, said the restaurant never got much business from Party City, though they operated in the same shopping center a few doors away from each other for years.

She heard most employees who worked at the old party store planned to move to the new one, and that gave her relief they wouldn't lose their jobs, she said.

"The staff was awesome there," Aiello said.

She and a few of her co-workers have heard Ulta Beauty will replace Party City, she said.

Carolyn Sutphen, a spokeswoman for Ulta, confirmed the company will take the place of the party supply store. The cosmetics retailer has signed a lease and plans to open the store there this summer, she said.

Ulta has several stores in Southwest Florida, including ones at Mercato in North Naples, Coconut Point mall in Estero and Tamiami Crossing in East Naples.

Kite Realty Group handles the leasing for Pine Ridge Crossing. According to its website, there are no other spaces available at the center, where the anchors include Target, Publix and Bealls. Leasing agents couldn't be reached to comment about the closing of Party City.

Party City Holdco Inc., a publicly held company, is the leading party goods company by revenue in North America. Its retail operations include more than 900 stores (about 180 of which are franchises).