As Sears attempts to stave off the inevitable, the faltering retailer is asking its few remaining landlords to throw the company a bone.
Sears tapped the Huron Consulting Group to help push landlords for rent concessions, Bloomberg reported. It remains to be seen if landlords will be amenable to doing any favors for a tenant clinging to life and regularly liquidating its last remaining stores.
Sears, a subsidiary of Eddie Lampert’s Transformco, is in dire straits. At its peak a little more than a decade ago, there were approximately 4,000 stores worldwide. Today, only 11 locations are in operation in the United States, one of which is off the mainland in Puerto Rico.
Sears did not comment on the rent concession plan.
The big-box retailer’s demise has appeared close at hand for years. The Lampert-led Kmart Holding purchased Sears in 2005 for $11 billion. In 2019, Sears sold its stores to ESL Investments — Transformco’s parent company and a Lampert affiliate — for $5.2 billion.
The year before that, Sears filed for bankruptcy with 687 stores in its portfolio. When it exited four years later, there were just 15 stores left.
Seritage Growth Properties, the real estate investment trust spun out of Sears, tried to turn the remaining assets into a business or sell them. It retained Barclays to find a buyer, but didn’t receive any offers.
A majority of Seritage shareholders ultimately approved a plan to sell all of the REIT’s assets. The company’s board also recommended Seritage liquidate its properties and return proceeds to shareholders. Lampert stepped down as Serittage’s chairperson in 2022.
Read more
Commercial
New York
Sears buyer Seritage weighing strategic plans, possible sale
Commercial
New York
Remnants of Sears to be wiped out as Seritage shareholders bless asset sale
Commercial
New York
Seritage Growth Properties looks to sell off all assets
Another Transformco subsidiary is on the verge of biting the dust, too, and no rental concessions are going to save it.
In less than two weeks, the Kmart in the Hamptons will close its doors, eliminating the discount retailer’s last full-sized store in the country. The last store standing in the mainland will be a small location in Miami, though several locations also exist in territories such as Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.