Real Estate

Sears Holding Corp. is looking to raise more than $2.5 billion by selling its stores to a real estate investment trust.

The REIT, called Seritage Growth Properties, will purchase 254 Sears and Kmart stores for more than $2.5 billion and then lease back the Sears and Kmart stores to Sears Holdings. Seritage will partially fund the transaction through a public rights offering.

Hoffman Estates, Ill. – Hendricks Commercial Properties LLC, a Wisconsin-based real estate firm, has reportedly purchased the lone Kmart store on the Hawaiian island of Maui, for $20.8 million. According to Pacific Business News, the 108,000-sq.-ft. building is part of a seven-acre parcel that had been on the market for $22.5 million.

Hendricks purchased the store from KM Maui Partners, who had been leasing the store back to Kmart.
 

A plan to co-brand RadioShack stores with the Sprint logo will apparently save the chain from extinction, according to the Wall Street Journal.  

Fort Worth, Texas – In what may be a tale of survival to rival the PT 109 ordeal of John F. Kennedy, RadioShack Corp. will exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy with some 1,700 stores intact.  

A bankruptcy judge on Tuesday approved the sale of 1,743 RadioShack stores to hedge fund Standard General, preserving some 7,500 jobs, the Wall Street Journal reported. Standard General intends to operate most of the preserved RadioShack stores in an alliance with Sprint Corp.

Hoffman Estates, Ill. – Sears Holding Corp. is forming a real estate investment trust (REIT) called Seritage Growth Properties, which will purchase 254 Sears and Kmart stores for more than $2.5 billion. Seritage will partially fund the transaction through a public rights offering.

Cincinnati -- Macy’s announced that Bloomingdale’s plans to open a 150,000-sq.-ft., three-level location in fall 2018 in an all-new shopping, dining and entertainment center being developed in Norwalk, Connecticut, by General Growth Properties.

“This spectacular new shopping center will be a distinctive and upscale destination for Fairfield County and surrounding areas, prominently positioned at I-95 and Highway 7,” said Tony Spring, chairman and CEO of Bloomingdale’s.

Chicago -- Torrid, the edgy plus-sized apparel division of Hot Topic, will open a flagship on State Street in Chicago, on April 8. It’s part of 60 stores the retailer is planning to open across the country this year.

The 3,000-sq.-ft. store, located in The Loop, Chicago's historic shopping district, will be Torrid's tenth store in the Windy City.

PetSmart Inc. is looking to drive growth with six new executive appointments focused in the areas of customer experience, merchandise planning, strategy, initiatives, sourcing and real estate.

The additions to the senior leadership team reflect the first major hires by PetSmart’s newly installed president and CEO, Michael Massey.