Office Depot Closing Its Rutgers Plaza Store, Fate Of Space Unknown

Office Depot will be closing its store in Rutgers Plaza.

Office Depot, the nationwide chain of office supply stores, is closing its store in Rutgers Plaza on Easton Avenue.

Julianne Embry, an Office Depot spokeswoman, confirmed that the store was closing, but said she could not provide any more details.

A person with knowledge of the situation said that store employees were told on Feb. 9 that the store would be closing sometime in mid-May.

There was no word on whether the employees would be offered jobs in other Office Depot locations.

Office Depot, which acquired OfficeMax in 2013, is waiting to be merged with its rival Staples. That merger, which was announced last year, is being challenged by the Federal Trade Commission.

In a joint Feb. 2 press release, Office Depot and Staples announced that they had completed financing arrangements for the merger and had extended their merger agreement from Feb. 4 to May 16, 2016.

“The extension allows for the completion of ongoing federal district court litigation with the Federal Trade Commission,” the companies said in the release.

Embry said that because the two stores are still operating independently, she could not say whether Staples plans to open a store in the space now occupied by Office Depot. Calls for comment to Levin Management, which manages Rutgers Plaza, and Staples were not immediately returned.

Office Depot in August 2015 announced that it was accelerating its planned closing of 400 stores nationwide. The move was seen as a way to make the merger more palatable to federal regulators worried about antitrust issues.

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