Penn Station, JFK Borders stores likely to close

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From left: Borders at Penn Station and at JFK Airport

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Borders will likely close 51 locations, including those at JFK airport and Penn Station, by June 22 to avoid defaulting on its bankruptcy loan, Crain’s reported. Borders hasn’t been able to negotiate extensions from landlords at those locations on deadlines to assume or reject the leases. Borders’ creditors, led by GE Capital, said they would not allow the bookstore chain to assume the leases itself. In the meantime, Borders will seek permission to sell furniture and equipment from those stores through a liquidator, while asking lenders to grant a grace period until July 21, when Borders goes to court to potentially close on the sale of the entire business. Without those 51 stores, which include some of the chain’s most profitable locations, the lenders will not get as good of a return on a potential sale. Borders filed for bankruptcy in February, and simultaneously took out a $505 million loan. It has since closed 237 of its 642 stores nationwide, including at least three in Manhattan at 461 Park Avenue, 576 Second Avenue and 100 Broadway. [Crain’s]