Sears seeks rent relief for its handful of remaining stores

Hoffman Estates, Ill. – Now down to fewer than a dozen stores, Sears is reportedly looking for rent concessions so that it can keep the lights on.

Bloomberg news reports that Sears is working with Huron Consulting Group Inc. to negotiate rent breaks on its 11 remaining units: four locations in California, two in Washington, two in Florida and one each in Massachusetts, Texas and Puerto Rico.

When hedge fund investor Eddie Lampert’s ESL Investments acquired Sears in 2005 and merged it with ESL’s Kmart operations, the fund operated a combined total 3,500 stores. Store closings soon followed – and continued for years – as the Sears Holdings company sought to monetize its real estate.

By the time bankruptcy arrived in 2018, the combined store count had fallen to less than 700 units. The following year, Lampert formed a new entity – Transformco – which acquired 400 Sears and Kmart stores. More store closings ensued.

The last Kmart store on the mainland U.S. is scheduled to close this month. Kmart still operates a smaller convenience-style store in Miami and has locations in Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The Sears and Kmart retail operations live on primarily as e-commerce entities.

See also:

• Dwindling number of Sears stores dwindles further
• Sears/Kmart locations falling to fewer than 200