Calvert Retail, a Delaware company that owns eight kitchenwares stores, could become the new owner of Chapel Hill’s (N.C.) struggling Southern Season as soon as today, the Charlotte (N.C.) News & Observer reported today. The company was the sole bidder at a bankruptcy sale on Friday morning with a $3.5 million bid. A bankruptcy judge approved the sale Friday afternoon and the deal is being expedited to close today. “We are very close to zero cash. We don’t have enough cash to operate next week if this doesn’t close,” said John Fioretti, the court approved chief restructuring officer for Southern Season. Southern Season was started in 1975 and eventually became a $30 million retail and mail order business and an anchor tenant at Chapel Hill’s University Place mall. However, it never recovered after the 2008 recession and was bought in 2011 by TC Capital Fund, which is led by Chapel Hill entrepreneur Clay Hamner.
