Buckland Hills Mall Sears Building sells for $10.4 million

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The still-open as Sears building at the Buckland Hills mall has been sold for $10.4 million. Mall management doesn't rule out mall purchasing the building in the future if store is shuttered.

From COURANT.COM

Manchester Sears building at Buckland Hills sells for $10.4 million
By JESSE LEAVENWORTH | HARTFORD COURANT |FEB 28, 2019 | 4:42 PM

Reflecting changes in Sears properties nationwide, the store at the Buckland mall has been sold for $10.4 million.

Although the 145,880-square-foot building is an anchor at the Shoppes at Buckland Hills, it is a separate property from the rest of the mall, town officials said. The store property is appraised at about $8.8 million, town assessment and collection Director John Rainaldi said.

The buyer was an outfit called TF Manchester CT LLC.. Representatives of that business and Sears could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The store remains open “and they don’t look to be lowering the amount of merchandise out on the floor,” mall General Manager Alfred Sherwood said. If the store does close, mall owner Brookfield Properties may be interested in buying the property, Sherwood said.

The once giant retailer filed for Chapter 11 protection in October. In February, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York approved a $5.2 billion bid by Sears Chairman Edward Lampert to buy the company through his hedge fund, ESL Investments.

Plans outlined by ESL, according to a Feb. 15 Chicago Tribune story, include smaller stores and a focus on the retailer’s strengths, such as appliances. In Connecticut, Sears stores in Milford and Waterford closed after the bankruptcy filing. The Sears website lists open stores in Manchester and Danbury, with auto centers at both locations, another auto center in Enfield and appliance outlet stores in Newington and West Haven.

Experts who have watched the company’s struggles say it still has a tough battle ahead, the Tribune reported.

"There is a viable path, but it's still a long shot," said Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners, a retail consultant.

The revamped company will have 223 Sears and 202 Kmart stores, nearly half of which are in California, Florida, Pennsylvania, New York and Puerto Rico, according to court filings. That’s down from 687 when the retailer sought bankruptcy protection four months ago and 1,672 stores in January 2016, the Tribune reported.

Lampert told The Wall Street Journal recently that he intends to sell or sublease some of Sears’ remaining 425 stores. Some of those stores are not profitable, and in financial forecasts, ESL said it expected to bring in about $200 million a year through real estate sales over the next three years, the Tribune reported.

“In a business plan prepared as part of its proposal to buy the company,” the story said, “ESL said it sees an opportunity to invest in smaller stores like the new appliance-focused stores Sears opened in Texas, Colorado, Hawaii and Pennsylvania. Those stores are between 7,000 and 20,000 square feet, while a typical Sears averages 138,000 square feet. The smaller stores specialize in selling appliances, but customers can also order other Sears products.”

Citing Bloomberg Data, the Tribune reported that the company’s filing in October marked the second-largest retail bankruptcy ever, just after that of real estate specialist Capmark Financial Group, with $21 billion in liabilities. The third-largest, Toys R Us, had around $8 billion in debt. Its attempt to reorganize through bankruptcy failed.

The retailer once was king of the American shopping landscape. Sears, Roebuck and Co.'s iconic catalog featured items from bicycles to houses. The company began opening retail locations in 1925 and expanded swiftly in suburban malls from the 1950s to 1970s. But the onset of discounters such as Walmart created challenges for Sears that have only grown. The retailer faced even more competition from online sellers and appliance retailers such as Lowe’s and Home Depot.

Jesse Leavenworth can be reached at jleavenworth@courant.com