News and Events
What is Your Real Estate Worth?
Healthy and not-so-healthy retailers scrub their portfolios.
Sep 1, 2008 Chain Store Age Katherine Field
As the nation's retail vacancy rates reach decade highs, both healthy and struggling retailers are asking the same question: What is our real estate worth?
The answer: Nowhere close to what it used to be.
Tallying real estate values is a painful exercise–especially when the end goal may be store disposition–and one that shouldn't be restricted, say the experts, to unhealthy retailers. Case in point: Mervyns, which announced on July 29 that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Hayward, Calif.-based discounter's filing has led analysts to question if the chain's leadership shouldn't have seen the handwriting on the wall.