Although the steady stream of retail bankruptcies spells trouble for the economy and retail real estate, some national chains are making moves that may help soften the blows. \u00a0A striking example emerged late last week. On Friday, Kohl\u2019s Corp. and Forever 21 Inc. disclosed that their joint-venture $6.25 million bid had won an auction for 46 Mervyns leases in California and the Southwest. Macerich, the shopping center REIT, said in a related announcement on Friday that it owns 22 of the leases acquired by the Kohl\u2019s and Forever 21 joint venture. The two retailers intend to use those sites as a springboard for expansion. For Kohl\u2019s, the 31 Mervyns locations will boost the department store\u2019s Western growth strategy, observed John Bemis, executive vice president & director of leasing and development for Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.\u2019s retail services unit. In a statement on Friday, the company said that it plans to open 50 new locations in fiscal 2009, many of them in the former Mervyns\u2019 locations. Bemis termed Forever 21\u2019s acquisition of 15 Mervyns\u2019 leases \u201ca fairly bold move.\u201d\u00a0 After steadily increasing the footprint size of is new stores, the fashion retailer apparently intends to take the leap into a full-size department store. In recent years, national apparel stores like The Gap, Old Navy and The Limited have attempted to grow their store size but then pulled back from the effort. \u201cIt\u2019s a very difficult step to take,\u201d Bemis said of the Forever 21 strategy. \u201cIf they make the transition, it will be highly profitable for them.\u201d Retailers should have many additional opportunities to bid on leases of bankrupt or downsizing retailers in 2009.\u00a0 The liquidation of the KB Toys chain announced last week will add still more inventory to the retail leasing market in 2009. Announced on Thursday, the chain\u2019s pending disappearance will shutter several hundred stores nationwide. Bemis called the timing of the move during the holidays \u201ca shocking decision.\u201d Although KB Toys has struggled for years and filed for bankruptcy once before, the announcement of the chain\u2019s demise surprised many observers. \u201cIf anything, they should have waited until the first week in January to do it,\u201d Bemis said. He speculated that landlords should be able to lease the best KB Toys locations in about three to six months, but added that less desirable sites will probably stay vacant for the bulk of 2009. For most observers, the big question for early 2009 will be how many more chains will sink under the weight of poor holiday sales. Bemis contends that there are still too many moving parts to make accurate predictions, but he suggested that the scariest predictions are overblown. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to be the mass onslaught that some people have projected,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to see 500 retail chains go out of business after the first of the year.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Although the steady stream of retail bankruptcies spells trouble for the economy and retail real estate, some national chains are making moves that may help soften the blows. \u00a0A striking example emerged late last week. On Friday, Kohl\u2019s Corp. and Forever 21 Inc. disclosed that their joint-venture $6.25 million bid had won an auction for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1314,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37301],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1003922616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n