The Starbucks coffee shop next to the food court inside Independence Mall has been shuttered and all signs removed.

On Tuesday, mall officials declined to comment on the closed storefront inside the mall at 3500 Oleander Drive in Wilmington, and efforts to reach a Starbucks representative for more information on why the location is gone were not immediately successful.

The 2,000-square-foot Starbucks on an outparcel in front of the mall remains open. Built in a former gas station that was retrofitted for the franchise, the stand-alone Starbucks at 3502 Oleander Drive opened in late May 2013 and includes a drive-thru.

Other Starbucks locations in the Wilmington area include Landfall Center, Mayfaire Town Center, at South College Road and New Centre Drive and inside six local Harris Teeter grocery stores, according to the company's website. 

As of 1 p.m. Tuesday, a foreclosure sale related to a loan on part of Independence Mall was still scheduled for 11 a.m. July 12 at the New Hanover County Courthouse in downtown Wilmington, said Andrew McVey, trustee in the foreclosure case and an attorney with Wilmington law firm Murchison, Taylor & Gibson.

Foreclosure proceedings on part of the mall, opened in 1979 and renovated in 2001, began in 2014 after Centro Independence LLC, owner of nearly 500,000 square feet of the property including the JC Penney wing, defaulted on a $110 million J.P. Morgan loan.