%1

Centerbridge Partners is considering options including a potential sale for packaged ice company Reddy Ice Holdings Inc., Bloomberg News reported. The New York-based private equity firm is working with an adviser on possibly starting a sale process in the second half of the year. No final decision has been made and Centerbridge could decide to keep the ice maker and distributor. Representatives for Centerbridge and Dallas-based Reddy Ice declined to comment. Centerbridge took a stake in Reddy Ice through a recapitalization, after the company filed for bankruptcy in 2012, according to its website. The company appointed Deborah Conklin as chief executive officer in 2017, with Bill Corbin becoming chairman.

Private-equity firm Great Hill Partners has agreed to acquire Gizmodo Media Group from Univision Communications Inc., the companies said, ending the Spanish-language broadcaster’s foray into English-language digital media, the Wall Street Journal reported. James Spanfeller, the former chief executive of Forbes.com and president of consumer magazines at digital publisher Ziff Davis, will become chief executive of G/O Media Inc., a new company created from the assets. Gizmodo Media Group includes sites Gizmodo, The Onion, Jezebel, Deadspin and Lifehacker. The companies didn’t disclose the deal’s price. People familiar with the sale process said they expect Great Hill Partners to pay much less than the $135 million Univision paid in 2016 to acquire most of the Gizmodo properties. Univision is still grappling with debt, the consequence of a $13.7 billion leveraged buyout in 2006 when buyout firms took the company private. The company said that it finished 2018 with $7.4 billion in debt but reduced its total debt by $547 million last year.

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. 

A sale is imminent for a San Antonio medical office building mired in bankruptcy — despite some fireworks at an auction last week, the San Antonio Express-News reported. Camco Land Ltd., an Austin partnership, successfully bid $14.2 million for the building at 9618 Huebner, edging out Denver-based Broe Real Estate Group by $100,000. The sale is expected to close later this week. Before approving the sale on Wednesday, though, Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ronald King denied Cherish Medical Office Building LLC the opportunity to bid amid allegations it has connections with Michael Horrell — who is involved with the building’s current ownership. Ray Battaglia, a bankruptcy lawyer for Palomar LLC, which has a stake in the building’s bankrupt ownership group, Tresha-MOB LLC, raised the objection regarding Cherish. Battaglia said on Monday it was his understanding that Randy Soule, Cherish’s owner, has had a long association with Horrell and that it should have been disclosed to the court before the auction.

Bankrupt oil-storage business Fairway Energy LP said its senior lender won an auction for the Harvard-backed company’s assets, with ExxonMobil Pipeline Co. named one of the backup bidders, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Subject to court approval, Riverstone Credit Partners Direct LP — which was owed about $95 million when Fairway filed for bankruptcy — will acquire virtually all of Fairway’s assets in a credit bid. Riverstone’s winning bid was for $77.5 million, Patrick Hughes, a Haynes & Boone LLP lawyer representing Fairway. A bankruptcy court hearing to approve the sale is scheduled in April before Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. Fairway had raised $390 million in equity from 63 investors to help build its signature project, the Pierce Junction Crude Oil Storage Facility in Houston. Fairway’s biggest shareholder, with a 28 percent stake, is Harvard Corp., formally known as the President and Fellows of Harvard College.