TORONTO – Hudson’s Bay is headed back to court with hopes of getting approval to sell more of its leases and to extend its reprieve from creditors.
The collapsed retailer is expected to use the appearance Thursday morning to ask the Ontario Superior Court to allow it to sell five leases to clothing company YM Inc. and one to Ivanhoe Realties Inc.
YM Inc. owns a slew of mall brands including Bluenotes, Urban Planet, Suzy Shier and West 49.
It wants to pay $5.03 million to take over properties the Bay and its sister Saks business held at Vaughan Mills in Vaughan, Ont., Tanger Outlet in Kanata, Ont., Outlet Collection in Winnipeg, CrossIron Mills in Rocky View, Alta., and Toronto Premium Outlets in Halton Hills, Ont.
YM has not said which of its brands will move into each site but the Bay said in court filings made last week that the landlords of all five properties have given their blessing to the prospective new tenant.
However, YM had bigger ambitions when it inked a deal with the Bay on May 28. It originally wanted to buy the leases at Pickering Town Center in Pickering, Ont., Skyview Power Centre in Edmonton, and Midtown Plaza in Saskatoon for $1 million, but landlord waivers weren’t secured for those properties.
In addition to the YM transaction, the Bay will also ask the court Thursday to allow it to move forward with another deal it struck to sell its lease at Metrotown in Burnaby, B.C., to Ivanhoe Realties Inc. for $20,000. Ivanhoe Cambridge, the parent company of Ivanhoe Realties, owns the mall and thus, the transaction is not facing opposition.
The two deals were the result of a process, which saw the Bay put its leases up for sale. One dozen bids for a collective 39 properties came in.
Ivanhoe’s bid was not initially accepted because of its low price, the Bay has said in court documents. However, negotiations eventually helped the parties come to an agreement.
The retailer is expected to use the remainder of the hearing to push for its creditor protection to be extended to Oct. 31.
The company, which closed all of its stores earlier this year, says the extension will give it more time to prepare its art and artifacts for auction and get approval to sell 25 more leases to B.C. billionaire Ruby Liu.
Liu already bought three leases at B.C. malls she owns but wants about two dozen more. She has said she will use the sites to open a new department store named after herself. It will have three tiers — flagship, premium and standard.
Liu is budgeting $375 million for the endeavour and says $120 million will be spent on “overdue” repairs to roofs, HVAC systems, washrooms, elevators and escalators. She also says $135 million will be spent on initial inventory. She projects her plan will create at least 1,800 new jobs and by 2027, generate more than $420 million in annual sales.
Landlords are vehemently opposed to her moving in and have criticized her for not providing enough information about the business she intends to open in their properties.
One of the Bay’s leading lenders, Restore Capital, and its parent company Hilco Global, have also fought Liu’s 25-lease deal, saying each month that the transaction goes unapproved, their costs rise and their chances of recovering lost money erode.
A judge has given all parties in the Bay case a series of August deadlines to produce documents and file motions, allowing the court to hear arguments around whether Liu should get the leases at the end of next month.
