Hunton Retail Law Resource

Bankruptcy filings of big box retailers such as Sears, Shopko and Charming Charlie have left landlords with difficult space to fill, especially at a time when few retailers are looking to expand and open new brick-and-mortar stores. Charming Charlie will close all of its 261 stores in 2019 (35 of which are located in Texas) while Sears announced 80 new store closures at the beginning of 2019 in addition to the 220 store closures it announced last year. Sears owned 687 stores at the time it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last October. In March, Shopko announced that it would close all of its 370 stores in connection with its bankruptcy filing at the beginning of this year. With other big box retailers including David’s Bridal and Bon-Ton both trying to hold onto their retail stores despite entering Chapter 11 protection, there is uncertainty as to how much empty space landlords will be left to fill. Due to the current state of the retail market, landlords may need to get creative in order to lease important anchor tenant space left empty by these recent bankruptcy filings.