Media Mention
Retailer At Home decides to keep open some US stores it previously planned to close
CoStar
Brian Davidoff, Chair of Greenberg Glusker's Bankruptcy, Reorganization & Capital Recovery Group, shared his insights with CoStar on home goods retailer At Home’s decision to keep two of its U.S. stores open, despite initial plans to close them, as the company seeks additional time through Delaware bankruptcy court proceedings to assume or reject its real estate leases.
Excerpts
"Often times, companies push out the date as far as they can to use that time to negotiate," Davidoff told CoStar News. It's not an unusual strategy and puts more pressure on the landlords."
Bankruptcy courts typically give deference to a tenant on what they can assume financially in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, Davidoff said. Likewise, landlords are also entitled to adequate assurance of future performance, he added, as well as any potential defaults.
Like other retail bankruptcies, Davidoff said he expects At Home to cut its unprofitable stores, a move that could give it "slimmed down operations." Last week, At Home filed a revised order to employ Hilco as its real estate consultant and adviser as it sought to satisfy its official committee of unsecured creditors.
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