Burlington, Ross Bid To Take Over Saks Off 5th Leases
As anxious consumers search for bargains, two discount clothing retailers are working to snatch up leases vacated by a bankrupt competitor.
Saks Global placed 59 leases up for auction last month as it shrinks its Saks Off 5th division in the wake of its January Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. So far, 31 have fielded bids, CoStar reported, citing court documents filed Wednesday.
The company is closing nearly all of its Saks Off 5th locations and all but 13 of its higher-end Saks Fifth Avenue stores.
Burlington offered $22M for 22 Saks Off 5th leases in states including Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas.
Ross Stores bid $4M on three Saks Off 5th leases in California and one in New Jersey, CoStar reported.
Burlington and Ross have expanded rapidly in recent years and taken over spaces previously occupied by other bankrupt companies like Party City and Bed Bath & Beyond.
Other bidders on the Saks Off 5th leases included Alabama-based Books-A-Million, which offered $1.25M for three locations, and the Western wear chain Cavender’s, which offered $750K for two, CoStar reported.
Saks’ real estate adviser, A&G Realty Partners, reportedly circulated marketing materials for the leases to about 1,900 potential buyers and fielded 41 bids totaling $36.3M.
The retailer also sold its 90K SF Saks Off 5th location outside Philadelphia in Bala Cynwyd to AD Tenant Holdings for $8.4M, which A&G reported was at the high end of the building’s valuation range. The location’s closure was announced alongside 7 other stores last month.
Saks’ bankruptcy filing followed the chain’s $2.7B acquisition of Neiman Marcus in 2024 as it pushed to control a larger swath of the high-end department store sector. The merger, backed by Amazon and Salesforce, left the company with $2B of debt.
Saks’ bankruptcy petition disclosed between $1B and $10B in both assets and liabilities.
The bankruptcy also came with a leadership shake-up, as former Neiman Marcus Group CEO Geoffroy van Raemdonck took the helm from Richard Baker.
"This is a defining moment for Saks Global, and the path ahead presents a meaningful opportunity to strengthen the foundation of our business and position it for the future," van Raemdonck said in a statement at the time.
