The leases of nearly 700 Party City stores are poised to be auctioned off amid the party supplies retailer’s ongoing bankruptcy.Â
A&G Real Estate Partners said it has been tasked with the planned auctioning of leases for 695 locations across America “pending court approval.” They are located in 44 states.Â
“The bid deadline and auction likely will be in early February,” A&G Real Estate Partners said.
The hundreds of leases are “for freestanding stores as well as those located in power centers, strips, and city street locations,” according to the company. Their square footage varies from 7,000 to 46,000.
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“This offers operators the chance to open in turnkey spaces that are ready for immediate occupancy with favorable lease terms in both suburban and urban retail markets,” A&G Co-President Andy Graiser said in a statement about the auction.Â
The announcement of A&G Real Estate Partners’ planned Party City lease auction came roughly two weeks after the party supplies retailer revealed it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Party City had been operating for nearly four decades.
Mitch Modell, who was previously the CEO of Modell’s Sporting Goods, has said he’s looking to potentially acquire Party City in the wake of the company’s bankruptcy filing.
He appeared on FOX Business Live on Dec. 31, where he talked about his idea for “taking a run at” purchasing Party City and another retailer.Â
Party City said Dec. 21 that it had entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy to “accomplish an orderly wind down in the most efficient manner and to maximize value for the benefit of the Company’s stakeholders.”Â
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The company decided to permanently shut down after “exhaustive efforts by the Company to find a path forward that would allow continued operations in an immensely challenging environment driven by inflationary pressures on costs and consumer spending, among other factors,” according to Party City.
The party supplies retailer also said it would continue to employ “more than 95%” of its workers “for some time” as it ends its operations.Â
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In 2023, the company completed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy process. During that time, it managed to get rid of nearly $1 billion of debt it had been dealing with.