Prime retail space for sale: court to sell 40 Ames/Zayre sites - Ames Department Stores Inc., discount store chain

Discount Store News, Sept 17, 1990

Prime Retail Space For Sale

Court to Sell 40

Ames/Zayre Sites

ROCKY HILL, Conn. - Forty former Ames and Zayre leases hit the open market in Hartford federal bankruptcy court at presstime, the first of 221 to be presented to the judge in Ames' bankruptcy hearings.

The company reported that contracts with other retailers have been negotiated for many of these 40 leases, but the judge must approve all such contracts and other bidders are free to up the ante during the hearing.

Caldor is rumored to be interested in up to six of the leases, but an Ames spokesman refused to confirm this deal or any other deal.

The 40 stores are located in Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

The judge has the option of accepting prearranged contracts, asking for better bids on the spot, or rejecting both deals and bids as not in the best interest of creditors.

A real estate source in Florida reported that the asking price for former Zayre leases in that state was "out of this world, particularly in a down market."

According to an Ames spokesman, those prices were set by fair market value and by constraints likely to be imposed by a creditors' committee.

Three other hearings encompassing the remaining 181 leases will be scheduled, with the first probably set sometime in early October.