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It’s down to the wire for bankrupt retailer Barneys New York, with an October 3 deadline to convert interest from a handful of potential buyers into a viable offer, Crain's New York Business reported. Last week, Barneys debtor-in-possession lenders tightened the timeframe from late October to this Thursday to secure an offer, or face liquidation. The move was designed in part to put pressure on potential buyers, some of whom are interested in Barneys as a going concern, according to an industry source. The list includes branding group Authentic Brands, upscale department store Nordstrom, fashion trade show and retail executive Sam Ben-Avraham and finance firm Ares, according to WWD. The luxury retail chain filed for bankruptcy on August 6 owing $100 million in unsecured trade debt. Unsecured creditors are expected to recover, at best, a few pennies on the dollar if Barneys achieves a going-concern sale and emerges from chapter 11. Vendors are deeply concerned about the possibility of liquidation, which would lead to in-season luxury merchandise being unloaded at fire-sale prices. Vendors also worry about Barneys’ ability, per the Bankruptcy Code, to claw back payments it made for merchandise within 90 days of filing for bankruptcy. Barneys’ CEO Daniella Vitale and chief restructuring officer Mohsin Meghji are trying to clinch a sale at the highest possible price and preserve Barneys slimmed-down retail footprint of seven stores.

Fashion retailer Forever 21 Inc. filed for bankruptcy on Sunday, as it joined a growing list of brick-and-mortar players who have succumbed to the onslaught of e-commerce companies such as Amazon.com Inc., Reuters reported. “We have requested approval to close up to 178 stores across the U.S. The decisions as to which domestic stores will be closing are ongoing, pending the outcome of continued conversations with landlords,” the company said in an email statement. Founded in 1984, the retailer said that it has 815 stores in 57 countries. The company plans to close most of its stores in Asia and Europe. However, it does not expect to exit any major markets in the United States. The company lists both assets and liabilities in the range of $1 billion to $10 billion, according to the court filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The retailer said it received $275 million in financing from its existing lenders with JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. as agent, and $75 million in new capital from TPG Sixth Street Partners, and certain of its affiliated funds. 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. 

Discount retailer Fred’s Inc. has reached two separate deals to sell some of its pharmacy assets, including 10 drugstores and inventory, to Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. and ExpressRx Co. for a total of about $16.4 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. Walgreens is looking to buy pharmacy inventory from Fred’s for about $9.4 million, according to a filing on Thursday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. ExpressRx has agreed to purchase 10 Fred’s pharmacies for about $7 million. As part of Walgreens’ offer, the drugstore chain would acquire substantially all of Fred’s pharmacy assets, including prescription files and records, as well as retail prescription and pharmaceutical inventory.

Five potential buyers have sent letters expressing interest in all or part of Barneys New York Inc. as the bankrupt luxury retailer tries to sell assets and avoid liquidation, Bloomberg News reported. Two of the would-be suitors would want all of the assets, while others are interested in just parts of Barneys. At least one potential bidder is an investment firm with previous holdings in the retail industry. Other parties have also indicated they will bid in the bankruptcy auction later this month, but didn’t want to submit letters that could become public before then. They didn’t identify the bidders. The upscale clothing retailer filed for chapter 11 last month with plans to shutter most of its stores after getting squeezed by rising rents and fewer visitors. Its management seeks to sell a slimmed-down business and negotiate with its landlords through the court process. The company said when it filed that it had secured $218 million in financing and will continue to operate until it finds a buyer.

In a city where every square foot counts, more retail spaces are being left vacant as online shopping and rising rents pressure shopkeepers, an analysis by the city comptroller’s office found, the Wall Street Journal reported. New York City’s retail vacancy rate increased from 4 percent in 2007 to 5.8 percent in 2017, the latest year for which data was available, according to a report released on Wednesday by Comptroller Scott Stringer. The amount of vacant retail space in the city roughly doubled over the same period, with 11.8 million square feet left empty by 2017. Vacancies rose across the city but most dramatically in outer boroughs with suburban-style shopping malls, Stringer’s office found. Staten Island, Queens and the Bronx had retail vacancy rates above the citywide average.

A bankruptcy judge has ordered two candy manufacturers to turn over candy and packaging they had been holding as collateral after high-end candy-shop chain Sugarfina Inc. failed to pay them, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Bankruptcy Judge Mary F. Walrath ordered the two family-owned manufacturers to hand over about 630,000 of Sugarfina’s Candy Cubes, clear, square containers usually filed with candy, and Champagne Bears, alcohol-infused gummy bears, being held in a warehouse on Long Island, N.Y. The judge told candy makers GLJ Inc. and MJC Confections LLC to keep the candy refrigerated to ensure it doesn’t melt. The judge said Sugarfina must pay the two manufacturers because preserving the candy costs them money, Judge Walrath said. Last week, Sugarfina sued the candy manufacturers to force them to turn over more than $2.8 million worth of the retailer’s sweets and other property in a warehouse in Bethpage, N.Y. The candy makers store Sugarfina’s raw candy, package its merchandise and assemble its products.

Judge Mary F Walrath ordered a Sugarfina vendor to turn over champagne-flavored gummy bears and 25,000 candy boxes that had been withheld as part of a pre-bankruptcy dispute, Bloomberg News reported. The upscale candy seller last week sued one of its vendors for failing to hand over the goods, which together with other Sugarfina property are worth an estimated $2.8 million. “The debtor has made a case for irreparable harm if it doesn’t get the champagne bears and cubes,” Judge Walrath said at a hearing. The vendor has threatened to turn off electricity at the warehouse holding the goods, which would destroy the gummy bears, attorneys for Sugarfina say in hearing. The case is Sugarfina Inc., 19-11973, U.S. Bankruptcy Court District of Delaware.

One Group Hospitality Inc., operator of the STK steakhouse chain, won court approval to buy Kona Grill Inc.’s 24 restaurants and other assets out of bankruptcy, the Wall Street Journal reported. Publicly traded One Group will pay $25 million in cash and will assume $11 million in Kona’s liabilities. Judge Christopher Sontchi of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., approved the sale yesterday at a hearing. One Group Chief Executive Emanuel Hilario told WSJ Pro Bankruptcy that his company plans to keep open virtually all of Kona’s remaining restaurants, a move that would preserve about 2,000 jobs. An earlier deal with a lead bidder led by a former chief executive of Kona collapsed in late July. That offer was for $20.3 million plus a similar assumption of liabilities.