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Mall operator PREIT's February comparable sales at core malls hit an "all-time high" of $618 per square foot, according to a press release, Retail Dive reported. The company, which filed and emerged from bankruptcy in 2020, also said that over 60% of that portfolio had sales productivity of more than $550 per square foot. After filing for bankruptcy in 2020, PREIT recapitalized, grew its sales and cut its losses by nearly half. Its losses, though, still remained substantial at $135.9 million for 2021. "We've continued our recovery ahead of expectation, capitalizing on broad based momentum, and confirming that the work we've done in shaping our portfolio, replacing anchors and remerchandising has positioned [the] portfolio to perform," CEO and Chairman Joe Coradino told analysts earlier in March, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript. A massive shortfall in rent payments sent PREIT into chapter 11, along with its peer CBL Properties, as retailers worked through the financial impact of temporary store closures and lingering traffic declines during the early phases of the pandemic. For PREIT and other mall operators, the challenges of the pandemic followed years of decline in revenue as the mall's place in the U.S. continued to diminish through the past decade.

Consumer confidence went up in March despite inflation that has become a top worry for Americans. The Conference Board’s index found consumer confidence rose to 107.2 in a report yesterday, Bloomberg reported. However, March also saw an increase in concerns about inflation, which has hit at its highest level in decades, with consumers believing it could get as high as 7.9 percent, according to the report. In a Gallup poll, 59 percent said they worry a “great deal” about the cost of living, with inflation the No. 1 economic issue among respondents. The concern about the economy has become a problem for the Biden administration, as another poll found that only 35 percent of voters somewhat or strongly approve of the job the president is doing with the economy.

U.S. new vehicle sales could fall to the lowest first-quarter volume in the past decade as chip shortages and the Ukraine crisis squeeze inventories and rising prices push less affluent buyers out of the market, research firm Cox Automotive said yesterday, Reuters reported. U.S. car and light truck sales are expected to fall more than 24% to about 1.22 million units in March and decline more than 16% in the first quarter. "Make no mistake, this market is stuck in low gear," said Charlie Chesbrough, senior economist at Cox Automotive, adding that sales will remain at current levels until supply improves. Cox forecasters said the U.S. economy should not experience a recession. But Cox cut its forecast for U.S. car and light truck sales in all of 2022 to 15.3 million vehicles, down 700,000 vehicles from its January outlook. Fresh lockdowns in China as well as Russia's invasion of Ukraine have reignited supply bottlenecks that were easing over recent months. Tight supplies have pushed new vehicle prices to record high levels. Households with less than $75,000 in annual income now account for nearly two percentage points less of the U.S. light vehicle market than a year ago, Chesbrough said. The average income of a new vehicle buyer is now $124,000.

Fewer Americans are leasing new vehicles because of higher prices and scarcity on dealer lots, a pullback that could crimp the supply of used vehicles and interested buyers in the coming years, the Wall Street Journal reported. The percentage of new cars and trucks leased during the COVID-19 pandemic has declined, dropping to 19% of overall retail sales so far this year through March 13 — the lowest since 2009, according to research firm J.D. Power. Leasing accounted for about 30% of the broader retail market in the years leading up to the health crisis, the firm’s data shows. The car shortage has prompted many auto makers to drop the discounts and other types of promotions they typically offer to make leasing attractive to car shoppers. “Buyers face sticker shock when they come out of one lease into another,” said Mike Maroone, chief executive of Maroone USA, which owns six dealerships in Colorado and Florida. In some cases, leasing a luxury model now costs about the same in monthly payments as financing one, spurring more consumers to buy out their existing leases or put their next vehicle lease on pause.

Jekyll & Hyde Club, a New York restaurant popular with tourists for its horror-themed food and shows, filed for bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. The kitschy eatery located in Greenwich Village owes creditors less than $7.5 million, including $1.5 million in back rent, according to papers filed in bankruptcy court in Manhattan. Actors put on shows during dinner and each floor of the restaurant focuses on a different aspect of a fictional, 1930s British explorers club, from science fiction to the Gothic horror of its namesake characters, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Club owner Deacon Brody Management Inc. elected to file under subchapter V of chapter 11 bankruptcy that is designed for small businesses to quickly rearrange debt without the usual expenses associated with bigger corporate reorganization cases, according to court papers.

Boston Consulting Group filed a lawsuit against GameStop that seeks $30 million in damages over the retailer's alleged "bad faith refusal to pay fees" owed to the consultancy under a written agreement, Retail Dive reported. More specifically, the firm said in its complaint that, starting in mid-2020, GameStop has "refused to pay significant amounts" of BCG's fees and demanded discounts "with no justification," as well as refused to continue "contractually-obligated meetings" tied to its fees. According to BCG, the consulting firm started working with GameStop in 2019, when the company was "on life support" and "[h]emorrhaging customers." The retailer's then-general counsel, Daniel Kaufman, who later became GameStop's chief transformation officer, led the relationship. BCG was brought on to "evaluate its operations and develop solutions that would enable a corporate transformation to ensure its continued viability," according to the firm. BCG said the agreed-on fee structure for its work with GameStop was based on projected profit improvements resulting from the firm's recommendations. Its work revolved around growing revenue through a video game ecosystem and manufacturer partnerships; finding cost cuts and operational improvements; driving category improvement; growing a pre-owned electronics business; pricing; and GameStop's loyalty program, among other areas of the business.

Two years after Art Van Furniture went bankrupt and started closing all its stores, the bankruptcy case's trustee is now attempting to go after the family of the late Art Van Elslander for tens of millions of dollars in proceeds from the retailer's 2017 leveraged-buyout sale to a private-equity company, Detroit Free Press reported. The lawsuit, filed this month in federal bankruptcy court in Delaware, focuses on the flurry of sale-leaseback transactions that were part of the deal and involved nearly 40 Art Van Furniture stores and related properties that the retailer had owned outright. Those transactions financed 70% of the Van Elslanders' $621 million deal in March 2017 with Boston-based Thomas H. Lee Partners. The sale-leasebacks saddled Art Van Furniture with new rent expenses — on top of a debt load from the deal — that, according to the lawsuit, immediately doomed the company and would prove unsustainable. Company founder Art Van Elslander was still alive when the sale happened. He died the following year at age 87. Proceeds from the real estate transactions went to do the deal — not support the furniture company's future. The Archie A. Van Elslander Trust received more than $529 million from the sale, and entities controlled by the patriarch's children, including Gary Van Elslander and David Van Elslander, received more than $75 million, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit seeks to recover more than $105 million in what it calls "fraudulent transfers" that included the sale-leaseback transactions, as well as $8 million in transfers to Gary Van Elslander and $2.5 million to David Van Elslander, among other transfers.

BLT Restaurant Group was quick to apply for a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan in April 2020, filing its request as soon as the aid became available as its steakhouses suffered at the start of the pandemic. After all, the company said, it did not know how long the funding, or the public health crisis that necessitated it, would last. Nearly two years later, BLT has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy, in part because it hasn’t been able to repay all of the PPP money it received, Restaurant Business reported. Founded in 2004, New York-based BLT owns four restaurants under the names BLT Steak and BLT Prime and manages four others under those brands in New York, Florida, Charlotte, Washington, D.C., and Hawaii. In April 2020, the company received a PPP loan of $3.3 million to help restart operations and pay employees, according to a bankruptcy petition filed March 18. But BLT said it wasn’t able to operate at anywhere near full capacity for most of the 24-week period covered by the loan. For more than 90 percent of that time, from late April to mid-October 2020, indoor dining was off limits in New York City. With its Manhattan dining rooms dark, BLT said, it was unable to meet the staffing levels required for full PPP loan forgiveness. BLT said it spent all of its PPP funds on approved expenses, including 60 percent on payroll. The Small Business Administration (SBA) approved forgiveness of about $1.9 million of BLT's loan in September 2021, leaving about $1.3 million for the company to repay — a sum that remains outstanding, according to the bankruptcy filing. BLT also owes more than $7.8 million on loans from its majority owner, JL Holdings 2002 LLC. And BLT said its federal aid troubles did not end with that first PPP loan. It filed for a second round of PPP funding in 2021 that, per SBA rules, had to adhere to the same terms as BLT’s first loan, which was made on a consolidated basis. Had BLT been able to apply for loans for its restaurants individually, it would have received $3.4 million rather than the $2 million it got in the second round of funding, according to the filing.