Burlington Stores will replace Bed Bath & Beyond locations

Bed Bath & Beyond locations across America will soon be replaced by Burlington Stores outposts and a range of other businesses, after the failed home goods retailer auctioned off its leases as part of its bankruptcy proceedings, court records show. 

The doomed big-box store selected bidders for 109 of its leases after a Monday auction. Off-price giant Burlington agreed to take over 44 of the locations for $12 million, the largest share of the leases, records filed late Tuesday show. 

Burlington secured six more leases for $1.53 million outside of the auction process, bringing the total number of locations to 50 for $13.53 million, records show. 

Many of the locations are considered “top notch,” said Bill Read, the executive vice president of commercial real estate firm Retail Specialists. They provide retailers in growth mode an opportunity to snag leases in prime locations amid a dearth of quality commercial real estate.

“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.

A number of 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: 9 leases for $2.55 million
• Haverty: 4 leases for $468,334

The other winners include grocers, premium furniture stores and discounters. Macy’s paid $1.2 million for a lease in ritzy Winter Park, Florida for a potential Bloomingdales location and Barnes & Noble secured a lease in Concord, North Carolina for $129,015. 

Landlords apart from those companies won 37 of the leases, the next largest portion after Burlington. Those landlords can now find their own tenants and potentially get a higher rent price than they’d be able to within the auction process.

The leases are for both Bed Bath & Beyond and Buy Buy Baby locations. Leases for the Buy Buy Baby outposts could be clawed back depending on what happens at an auction for the chain’s assets, Bed Bath said in a court filing. 

The leases sold are for stores that range in size from 14,000-square feet all the way to 92,000-square feet. 

Bed Bath raked in $24.41 million in all from the lease auction. A portion of those proceeds will likely go to unpaid rents at the locations and the rest will go to Bed Bath to pay the retailer’s many creditors. 

When Bed Bath & Beyond filed for bankruptcy in late April, the retailer had 468 leases to its name, and 153 of them were brought to auction earlier this week, records show. Successful bids went through for only 109 of the them.

The retailer had said in court filings that another wave of lease auctions could take place. It is unclear if that process…