Months later on, while, that plan was amended so that Seritage’s entire authentic estate portfolio of former Sears and Kmart properties nationwide was for sale, from forlorn suppliers, to one particular-time mall anchors, to coveted websites in which renderings predicted business towers, hotels, condos, boutique stores and little parks.
How’s that likely?
As of year-conclude 2023, Seritage nevertheless experienced a stake in 32 qualities, down from 160 two many years before, in accordance to the once-a-year report filed with regulators this month. And whereas Seritage after had 10 houses in New York, it’s down to just the Colonie Heart Sears space and affiliated acreage, as nicely as an interest in a mall joint undertaking in Rockland County.
Seritage bought off 68 houses final year, the company claimed, using a chunk of the gross proceeds to shell out down credit card debt tied mostly to a $1.6 billion time period loan from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. That credit card debt is now a more workable $330 million.
Some of the remaining Seritage properties have prospective buyers in the wings, CEO Andrea Olshan observed in a news launch on the 2023 success. Many others have “important hurdles” to defeat or “specific objectives” to fulfill “prior to launching these belongings for sale,” she mentioned.
Where by the previous two-story Sears shop at Colonie Heart stands in that scheme is unclear.
Last calendar year, you may well recall, retailer Floor & Decor took 57,000 square feet of very first-floor Sears room up coming to Complete Foods, which had found in 34,000 sq. feet yrs previously that was carved out even though Sears nevertheless operated there.
One more new tenant, Sierra, an outdoor attire and equipment sibling to TJ Maxx and Marshalls, is expected to fill significantly of the remaining 22,000 sq. feet on the first floor. But the full 94,000-sq.-foot next floor stays vacant.
Seritage did not answer to emailed issues sent to its general public relations company about the 2023 annual report and accompanying information launch. “[T]he enterprise has nothing at all to add in this article,” a agent replied.
The launch acknowledges that industrial real estate as a total “continues to knowledge complicated industry conditions” that have used “downward pricing strain,” which is influencing choices by Seritage on “whether and when to transact on each individual of the company’s remaining assets.” In flip, that could have an effect on what shareholders sooner or later see from the gross sales.
A curious reference by CEO Olshan in the release implies that with the ongoing income, “We have a line of sight into a significantly far more simplified portfolio of largely premier development web sites in key markets” that, alongside with other money efforts, “may posture the business for prospective strategic transactions as an alternative to continuing our system of sale.”
My emailed issue on whether that indicators a new tack remains.
