As Toys ‘R’ Us prepares to close more than 700 stores around the country, some of them in the Chicago area won't stay dark for long, Crain's Chicago Business reported. The giant toy retailer has found takers for a small group of its stores in the Windy City after conducting two auctions for more than 400 of its locations nationwide. The fortunate few include Regency Centers, the Jacksonville, Fla.-based owner of Roscoe Square, a 140,500-square-foot shopping center on the western edge of Roscoe Village, on the city's Northwest Side. In a recent auction of 273 Toys ‘R’ Us stores and other properties, Ashley Furniture and Huntington National Bank offered to take over part of a 38,600-square-foot Toys ‘R’ Us store at Roscoe Square, according to a June 5 court filing. Regency is taking over the rest of the space, which Toys ‘R’ Us controls through a ground lease. In an earlier auction approved by a bankruptcy judge in April, Toys ‘R’ Us, which has about 30 stores in the Chicago area, was able to sell off leases for stores in Highland Park, Vernon Hills and at Bricktown Square Shopping Center on Chicago's West Side. Read more.
Occupancy issues are at the heart of many significant retail cases, as detailed in the ABI publication Retail and Office Bankruptcy: Landlord/Tenant Rights, available at the ABI Store.
