J. Crew Receives $130M in Landlord Concessions
By Chava Gourarie August 10, 2020 5:06 pm
reprints
J. Crew Group has reopened 95 percent of its stores after landlords provided the bankrupt company with $130 million in rent concessions over the next two years, J. Crew announced Monday.
J. Crew’s parent company, Chinos Holdings, filed for bankruptcy in May with $1.7 billion in debt, the first major retailer to do so during the pandemic.
At the time of the filing, Chinos had approximately 500 unexpired leases across its J. Crew and Madewell brands, including J. Crew Factory stores, with $23 million in lease obligations each month, according to court records.
The concessions offered will save J. Crew around $70 million in 2020 and $60 million in 2021, per the release.
The company announced in July that it would permanently close eight stores in August, after originally publicizing a list of 67 stores on the chopping block in June. At the time, the retailer stated that it would “remove a store lease from the rejection list in the future if it reaches an acceptable resolution with the affected landlord.”
J. Crew also requested a 60-day rent pause during the bankruptcy proceedings, as the stores were unable to operate during the pandemic-induced shutdowns across the country, as CO reported at the time.
As of Sunday, the company had reopened 458 stores, roughly 95 percent of the total, after closing them due to the pandemic, according to Retail Dive.
J. Crew was facing trouble before the pandemic began, and was saddled with debt because of its 2011 leveraged buyout from private equity firms TPG Capital and Leonard Green & Partners. It had planned to take Madewell, its best performing brand, public, before the pandemic hit to help pay down the debt, but the IPO has been scrapped.
