Many Bed Bath & Beyond locations across America will soon be replaced by Burlington Stores, while Overstock.com bought the company’s name and intellectual property assets in bankruptcy proceedings. Overstock intends to sunset its name and rebrand itself as Bed Bath & Beyond.
Overstock’s “generic” name has held the company back, and it does not really reflect the company’s current focus on selling home goods and furniture online, Overstock CEO Jonathan Johnson said. Overstock paid $21.5 million for the name and intellectual property assets.
Meanwhile, after a recent auction, defunct Bed Bath & Beyond chose bidders for 109 of its leases. Burlington agreed to take 44 of the leased locations for $12 million, the largest share. Burlington acquired six additional leases for $1.53 million outside of the auction process, bringing the total number of locations to 50 for $13.53 million.
Many of the locations are considered “top-notch,” said Bill Read, executive vice president of commercial real estate firm Retail Specialists. He explained that the lease auction of Bed Bath offered growing businesses a chance to secure prime locations during a time when high-quality commercial real estate is hard to come by.
“In aggregate, the Bed Bath & Beyond locations were some of the best that I’ve seen become available. They’re usually in large community centers with Target as an anchor and multiple other desirable anchor tenants in the shopping center,” Read told CNBC.
“These are generally in well-established, mature markets that have a proven track record of generating high sales,” he continued.
Several other retailers snatched up the leases. Here’s a list of the top winners:
- Burlington Coat Factory: 50 leases for a total price of $13.53 million.
- Michael’s: Nine leases for $2.55 million.
- Haverty: Four leases for $468,334.
Other winners include grocers, quality furniture stores, and discounters. Macy’s paid $1.2 million for a lease in swanky Winter Park, Florida, for a potential Bloomingdale’s location, and Barnes & Noble secured a lease in Concord, North Carolina, for $129,015.
