{"id":295060,"date":"2026-06-03T22:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T22:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/295060\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T22:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T22:44:08","slug":"fort-lauderdales-west-marine-seeks-chapter-11-protection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/295060\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Lauderdale\u2019s West Marine seeks Chapter 11 protection"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0306191431.JPG\"   width=\"1200\" height=\"674\" title=\"General Manager Erik Rimblas poses in a West Marine store in Fort Lauderdale on June 19, 2003. West Marine says it will be closing a number of stores.\" alt=\"General Manager Erik Rimblas poses in a West Marine store in Fort Lauderdale on June 19, 2003. West Marine says it will be closing a number of stores.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        General Manager Erik Rimblas poses in a West Marine store in Fort Lauderdale on June 19, 2003. West Marine says it will be closing a number of stores.<\/p>\n<p>                Marimer Codina<\/p>\n<p>            For the Miami Herald<\/p>\n<p>West Marine, which operates more than 230 stores in 34 states and Puerto Rico, has announced it is filing for bankruptcy.<\/p>\n<p>The company, which relocated its headquarters from California to Fort Lauderdale in 2022, filed for Chapter 11 protection on May 17.<\/p>\n<p>The filing blames the company\u2019s significant debt burden and the costs of its retail spaces as primary reasons for the bankruptcy filing.<\/p>\n<p>The company was hurt when rising interest rates impacted its debts in 2024 and 2025, coupled with a pandemic-fueled boating boom that has since dried up. The filing also claims that a sustained pattern of severe-weather events in its primary markets hurt sales.<\/p>\n<p>West Marine says it will be closing a number of stores. The company will be focusing more on its digital platforms and refocusing its inventory on boaters who need immediate, in-person supplies.<\/p>\n<p>This report was produced by Miami Herald news partner <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wlrn.org\/\">WLRN Public Media.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"General Manager Erik Rimblas poses in a West Marine store in Fort Lauderdale on June 19, 2003. West&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295061,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-295060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}