The stores will be auctioned off May 22. The Wall Street Journal first reported the auctions and said approximately 200 investor groups have expressed interest in bidding on the properties.

Both Mid Rivers Mall and South County Center are owned by Tennessee-based CBL Properties. According to the Real Insight Marketplace offerings, both Sears stores at those malls are profitable.

CBL has acquired seven Sears locations over the last two years, said CEO Stephen Lebovitz.

He told the Post-Dispatch the company has had internal discussions on how to handle Sears stores at Mid Rivers Mall or South County if they should come up for sale or Sears loses them in some other form.

Lebovitz said CBL is focused on changing the types of stores it brings to its malls to shift away from relying too heavily on apparel, and there is an opportunity with big box stores such as Sears increasingly selling its locations.

“We’re trying to be proactive with Sears in our portfolio and they’ve been great ways to bring in new uses,” he said. “We’ve put in an H&M, restaurants like the Cheesecake Factory or an American Girl in some of them. We’ve looked at the Sears at Mid Rivers and South County and have plans on what do do if we took those back.”

Sales at Sears stores, according to the company’s most recent annual report, have declined from $18.2 billion in 2016 to $13.4 billion last year.

Sears is seeking to transition out of being a landlord.

“We expect to continue to right-size, redeploy and highlight the value of our assets, including monetizing our real estate portfolio and exploring potential asset sales, in our transition from an asset intensive, historically ‘store only’ based retailer to a more asset light, integrated membership-focused company,” the company said in its latest annual filing.

The Mid Rivers Mall Sears, according to St. Charles County records, has a total market value of $5.8 million. The South County Center store, St. Louis County records show, is appraised at $2.3 million.