Official: Sears at Twelve Oaks Mall is Closing?

[GPCharles]

This type of transaction is called a sale-leaseback.

[Richard]

^ given the proposed tenant would you feel comfortable with it?

With all of closings lately there is an abundance of empty large retail sites that have been sitting for years around me anyways.

[aj3647]

Probably within the year, Sears and K-Mart will go belly up. Toys R Us is gone, Carson's is closing too. That was a nice store that sold quality goods. Too bad Amazon and other online options are the demise of brick and mortar stores. The Malls are scarcely populated now, except maybe during Holidays.

It might be easy to blame Amazon, but it's not correct. To blame Amazon for the failure of Sears and K-Mart doesn't explain why Walmart and Target [[both brick and mortar) are performing so well.

For starters, K-Mart has been on a steep decline since they went bankrupt in 2002, LONG before anyone had ever heard of Amazon.

And for stores like Sears and Toys-R-Us, they are failing because they are poorly run and mismanaged companies. It's that simple.

http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/15/news...ame/index.html

It's true, online shopping didn't help matters, but the struggles of Toys "R" Us predate the boom in online shopping. Many of its wounds were self-inflicted.
The company's biggest problem: It was saddled with billions of dollars in debt. That debt stopped it from making the necessary investment in stores. And that meant an unpleasant shopping experience that doomed the chain.

Even Toys "R" Us CEO David Brandon conceded in an SEC filing last fall that the company had fallen behind competitors "on various fronts, including with regard to general upkeep and the condition of our stores."

Yeah, with the popularity of Amazon, that means retail is a crazy competitive market right now. So there's no more room for mediocre brick and mortar stores that are saddled with corporate debt and run by morons who make bad business decisions.

[313WX]

^ given the proposed tenant would you feel comfortable with it?

With all of closings lately there is an abundance of empty large retail sites that have been sitting for years around me anyways.

I know I wouldn't agree to a sale-leaseback with a tenant that's likely to go bankrupt long before the lease is up.

[Cincinnati_Kid]

Even Toys "R" Us CEO David Brandon conceded in an SEC filing last fall that the company had fallen behind competitors "on various fronts, including with regard to general upkeep and the condition of our stores."

Is this the same David Brandon that was the AD at Michigan, a while back?

[archfan]

Is this the same David Brandon that was the AD at Michigan, a while back?

That's him, winning again.

[aj3647]

Is this the same David Brandon that was the AD at Michigan, a while back?

He's also a former CEO of Domino's Pizza.

[iheartthed]

It might be easy to blame Amazon, but it's not correct. To blame Amazon for the failure of Sears and K-Mart doesn't explain why Walmart and Target [[both brick and mortar) are performing so well.

For starters, K-Mart has been on a steep decline since they went bankrupt in 2002, LONG before anyone had ever heard of Amazon.

And for stores like Sears and Toys-R-Us, they are failing because they are poorly run and mismanaged companies. It's that simple.

http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/15/news...ame/index.html



Yeah, with the popularity of Amazon, that means retail is a crazy competitive market right now. So there's no more room for mediocre brick and mortar stores that are saddled with corporate debt and run by morons who make bad business decisions.

I think Walmart started the assault against K Mart and Amazon finished them off. Walmart is now freaking out about Amazon, which the company views as an existential threat to Walmart.

[Cincinnati_Kid]

That's him, winning again.

He's not winning. He's stealing money. He failed at Domino's, then at Toys R Us. His job was to turn the company around. Now he get's to ride into the sunset, with a golden parachute. Tell that to all those people that lost their jobs. It's BS.

[aj3647]

I think Walmart started the assault against K Mart and Amazon finished them off. Walmart is now freaking out about Amazon, which the company views as an existential threat to Walmart.

K-Mart failed in large part due to good old fashioned mismanagement.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kmart#...ger_with_Sears

In a scandal similar to that involving Enron, Conaway and Schwartz were accused of misleading shareholders and other company officials about the company's financial crisis while making millions and allegedly spending the company's money on airplanes, houses, boats and other luxuries. At a conference for Kmart employees on January 22, Conaway accepted "full blame" for the financial disaster. As Kmart emerged from bankruptcy, Conaway was forced to step down, and was asked to pay back all the loans he had taken.

It all boils down to leadership. K-Mart had greedy and incompetent leaders who ran the company into the ground.

Meanwhile, Toys R Us's fate was sealed all the way back in 2005 when Bain Capital acquired them in a leveraged buyout, saddling them with billions in corporate debt. The past 13 years has simply been Toys R Us kicking the can down the road with enormous interest payments on their massive debt, until they finally ran out of road. They haven't turned a profit as a company since 2013.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-t...-idUSKCN1BV0FQ

[Richard]

I think they did what everybody else did back then and all of this is the tail end of the crash.

I wonder if they shied away from the Internet sales part because of the risk when millions lost on that crash.

All of the large retail space is going to be like playing musical chairs,who ever is holding it when the music stops is going to be stuck with it for a long time.

Here it is tons of empty supermarket,retail and chain closures sitting empty for years,some of it was built new a year before shutting,but they have not dropped the price on the lease aspect.

K mart had that cheap priced Japanese junk to be replaced by Walmart with cheap Chinese junk Walmart is being replaced by Amazon and everybody else's cheap junk from all corners of the globe,what's left?

[archfan]

He's not winning. He's stealing money. He failed at Domino's, then at Toys R Us. His job was to turn the company around. Now he get's to ride into the sunset, with a golden parachute. Tell that to all those people that lost their jobs. It's BS.

You forgot to include failing at Michigan. And I forgot to include a sarcasm indicator.

[Pat001]

When I was young Sears was the go-to store for our entire family. We always bought Sears Weatherbeater paint, whenever we needed a water heater or a water softener, car battery, tires, tools, Kenmore appliances, we automatically went to Sears. Now Sears isn’t even on our radar.

[Cincinnati_Kid]

When I was young Sears was the go-to store for our entire family. We always bought Sears Weatherbeater paint, whenever we needed a water heater or a water softener, car battery, tires, tools, Kenmore appliances, we automatically went to Sears. Now Sears isn’t even on our radar.

Agreed. I still buy Craftsman tools, they are the best.

[DTWflyer]

Meanwhile, just up M-5 in Commerce Twp:
Commerce Township wants to move forward with a faux-downtown mixed-used development thats been in the works for over a decade.

Crains ran an article last week, not sure how many of you see this or have access behind a pay-wall so there is another link of the developers' concept.

Sigh....just want this region needs is more sprawly retail, faux downtowns. This looks a lot like a Partridge Creek type of development, on the East side. Of course on that massive, cluster@#%^ of a traffic circle there at M-5 & Pontiac Trail.

First major retail center in more than a decade planned | Crain's Detroit Business

http://www.envisionrealtyadvisors.co...inglePages.pdf

"We were looking for a specific style of development that brought something to this community we never had before, a downtown with exceptional housing, that took advantage of the site," Stacey said.

In places like downtown Birmingham, Rochester, Ferndale and Royal Oak, you walk out of a business and within a short distance, you can see residential properties, Scott said. "It's vibrant and operating all the time."

Five & Main "creates a place in Commerce Township that we can identify and gravitate to as our downtown," he said.

"It really will become the epicenter of activity different than any other project done previously."

Ugh.

[Johnnny5]

The Commerce development idea is just plain dumb with Novi just a few miles down the road. The community would be much better off with that area turned back into parks and residential development.

[Bham1982]

That Commerce plan sounds like the height of idiocy and guaranteed fail. Novi, just down the road, has like 20x as much retail space and is much better located.

Why do developers think that a mall without a roof is a "downtown"? I don't get it. This is just a mall.

[Richard]

Agreed. I still buy Craftsman tools, they are the best.

Same here but they sold out to DeWalt like porter cable and Ryobi which have all turned to junk,hopefully the same will not happen with the craftsman brand.

[Rock N Rye]

That Commerce plan sounds like the height of idiocy and guaranteed fail. Novi, just down the road, has like 20x as much retail space and is much better located.

Why do developers think that a mall without a roof is a "downtown"? I don't get it. This is just a mall.

"Main Street" in Novi is almost completely abandoned now, despite the superior location. Not sure why this would work in Commerce.

[hybridy]

Bon-Ton demise set for Aug 31

is this the demise of our 'mid/high end' malls?

Carson's stores to close at:
Partridge Creek
Laurel Park Place
Village of Rochester Hills

17 total stores in Michigan
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money...ers/527726002/

[Bham1982]

Bon-Ton demise set for Aug 31

is this the demise of our 'mid/high end' malls?

Carson's stores to close at:
Partridge Creek
Laurel Park Place
Village of Rochester Hills

17 total stores in Michigan
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money...ers/527726002/

Bon-Ton is a failing retailer.

Laurel Park Place and Village at Rochester are quite successful, and won't have trouble filling that space.

Laurel Park should have never been built and has always been a leasing struggle.

[dtowncitylover]

Bon-Ton is a failing retailer.

Laurel Park Place and Village at Rochester are quite successful, and won't have trouble filling that space.

Laurel Park should have never been built and has always been a leasing struggle.

But what will those spaces be filled with? Not many stores left that need a department store footprint. I liked Carson's and sad to see it go. It was a better JC Penney but not as pretentious as Macy's tries to be [[or as messy).

[Bham1982]

But what will those spaces be filled with? Not many stores left that need a department store footprint. I liked Carson's and sad to see it go. It was a better JC Penney but not as pretentious as Macy's tries to be [[or as messy).

In Michigan I doubt a traditional department store makes much sense [[we have too much retail), but there are still plenty of options.

Expanding smaller retailers, like Primark [[not yet in Michigan) are gobbling up old department stores. Gyms are physically huge nowadays. Lifetime Fitness has locations bigger than department stores.

Or, you could just demolish the structure and replace with smaller-scale retail.

[401don]

Same here but they sold out to DeWalt like porter cable and Ryobi which have all turned to junk,hopefully the same will not happen with the craftsman brand.

I remember when Black & Decker was a respected name, then they started slapping their name on every crappy small appliance.

[Maof]

Sears at Oakland Mall closing as well