NEW ULM – Employees of the Target Store in New Ulm learned Monday that the corporation has decided to close the store on Jan. 30, 2016.

“The decision to close a Target store is not made lightly,” said company spokesperson Kristy Welker. “We typically decide to close a store after careful consideration of the long-term financial performance of a particular location. Typically, the decision to close a store is as a result of seeing several years of decreasing profitability.”

Target employs 96 people at the New Ulm store. All eligible Target store employees are being offered the option to transfer to other Target stores.

The Target store opened in 1999 in New Ulm. At 89,490 square feet, it is smaller than a Target Super Store.

Target owns the property, and the building is for sale.

The closing will leave New Ulm with a large retail space open on the south end of town.

The former Runnings retail store at 16th North and Broadway may appear to be vacant, but it is now leased by 3M, according to New Ulm Plant Manager John Illikman. Runnings moved to the former Kmart building near Cash Wise about two years ago.

3M is using the facility as a warehouse and did some upgrades to the building, Illikman said. 3M is in the first year of a five-year lease. The building may still be for sale, Illikman said; however, 3M would continue to occupy it until the lease is up.

The Target store is one of the anchors of the south end of New Ulm, along with the Hy-Vee store just across Broadway.

There seemed to be a groundswell on Monday evening for keeping the store open. Social media at #SaveNewUlmTarget tallied 7,300 members.

The closing is “unfortunate news” for New Ulm, said New Ulm Area Chamber of Commerce President Audra Shaneman.

“Target has been an anchor in the New Ulm retail scene for 15 plus years and this is unfortunate news for our community,” she said in a statement Monday afternoon. “We know our local store was profitable, had great community support, employed dedicated and productive employees and experienced exceptional customer loyalty from shoppers in our area. We know that Target as a corporation is restructuring their business plan, but we were not expecting this news.”

Editor’s Note: This story has been corrected to read that the former Runnings store is being used as a warehouse by 3M, which has a five-year lease on the building.