NASHUA – The three Gap stores at the Pheasant Lane Mall have closed their doors and been emptied out, as the company prepares to open a lower-cost Gap Outlet store in the new Merrimack Premium Outlets mall in June.

Gap stores were also shut in at least one other mall within driving distance – the Atrium Mall in Chestnut Hill, Mass. – but they remain open in the Mall of New Hampshire in Manchester and Rockingham Mall in Salem.

The mall has declined Telegraph requests for comment, and Gap Inc., headquartered in San Francsico, did not return calls seeking comment.

The closing may be related to the company’s plants to shrink its U.S. presence to cut losses. In October, the company said it planned to close 189 locations, about 21 percent of its Gap stores in the U.S., by the end of 2013. It closed a Gap store in the Steeplegate Mall in Concord last summer.

Over the same period, Gap Inc. said it plans to open 50 or so Gap Outlet stores.

The Gap Outlet coming to Merrimack Premium Outlets, a 430,000-square-foot mall set to open near Exit 10 of the Everett Turnpike, will be the first in New England. Currently, none are closer than the New York City area.

The closest to an official statement about the Nashua closing came on the Pheasant Lane Mall’s Facebook page, which included this comment from a mall representative: “We are sad to see Gap leave as well, we love their jeans! … Stores decide for themselves if they want to leave or stay and we do our best to ensure great stores stay but sometimes it’s out of our hands.”

Pheasant Lane Mall had three Gap stores: The Gap, BabyGap and GapBody.

Even as it is shutting U.S. locations, Gap is expanding overseas. It opened its first South Africa store this month, signed a contract to expand into Lebanon, and plans to triple the number of Gap stores in China by the end of this year.

The company also owns Old Navy and Banana Republic clothing retailers and women’s athletic apparel retailer Athleta.

David Brooks can be reached at 594-6531 or dbrooks@nashuatelegraph.com.