BAZETTA — Most of the employees at the Kmart distribution center already have worked their last day at the facility that is expected to close by the end of February.

A “handful” of employees remain at the center on Perkins Jones Road cleaning and moving items in the warehouse, said Dave Green, president of United Auto Workers Local 1112, which represented workers at the center.

“While a handful of people remain, we expect distribution center to be closed by the end of the month,” a UAW Local 1112 information flyer states. “Please keep our Kmart members and their families in your thoughts and prayers.”

The last day for most of the center’s employees was Thursday, Green said Monday.

“For all intents and purposes, the distribution center is closed,” Green said.

A telephone message and email sent to a corporate spokesman Monday for comment were not returned.

At its peak, as many as 800 people were employed at the center, Green said. Most recently, however, employees numbered right around 50. The center opened in 1982. The 1.4 million-square-foot building sits on about 100 acres of land.

The fate of the center remained up in the air as late as October, when Kmart’s parent parent company, Sears Holdings, filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It fed stores in northeast Ohio, but those fell victim to closings.

Locally, Sears Holdings closed the Kmart in Austintown in January 2018 and the Super Kmart on state Route 46 in April. The Kmart on Parkman Road NW, Warren, closed in 2016. Another in Middleburg Heights was on a list released by Sears Holdings in October. It closed in December.

Transform Holdco LLC, an affiliate of ESL Investments, the hedge fund controlled by former Sears Holdings CEO Edward Lampert, acquired Sears at auction in January. A federal bankruptcy court approved the sale earlier this month.

The new Sears will comprise 202 Kmart stores and 223 Sears stores.

rselak@tribtoday.com