Nike to close San Jose store

The world’s largest shoe manufacturer, Nike Inc., that also operates retail stores worldwide, plans to close its store at Westfield Valley Fair shopping center in San Jose on May 17.

The 5,000-square-foot location on the second level of Valley Fair, opened in June 2005. Representatives of both Nike Inc. and Valley Fair could not be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon.

Nike, based in Beaverton, Ore., opened its first retail store in 1990. It will continue to operate a Nike retail store at Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, a Niketown retail store at San Francisco’s Union Square shopping district and a NikeFactory store at the Great Mall of the Bay Area in Milpitas.

In 2008, Nike Inc. recorded 2008 sales of about $18.6 billion and employed 32,500 people.

Valley Fair, with 1.5 million square feet of gross leasable area, anchored by Nordstrom and two Macy’s stores, is Silicon Valley’s largest retail center.