A pair of New York investment firms are engineering the purchase of more than 75 Shopko stores and the bankrupt retailer's headquarters and will seek to lease, redevelop or sell the properties, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. The properties include 25 in Wisconsin. At least 14 of those have been purchased, for a total of $67 million, records posted by the state Department of Revenue show. Prices and other information on the remaining 11 Wisconsin parcels were not publicly available on Friday. The investors also are buying Shopko and Shopko Hometown stores in 13 other states. Involved in the acquisitions and marketing of the properties are Monarch Alternative Capital, which specializes in distressed debt, and Raider Hill Advisors, a real estate investment and advisory firm. Monarch is the primary investor in Heartland Hill Properties — the entity that will hold the portfolio of some 5.5 million square feet of real estate. Raider Hill will oversee leasing or sale of the properties, the company announced. 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.
