Bed Bath & Beyond auctioned off 109 of its store leases earlier this week as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization — and two major national retail brands claimed spaces at six locations.

The auction, held by Long Island, New York-based A&G Real Estate Partners, ended on June 26 for 353 Bed Bath & Beyond store leases and 108 leases for the company’s related Buy Buy Baby chain.

Companies won just 23.6% of the 461 total available leases — including five in South Florida:

Discount clothing retailer Burlington Stores Inc. (NYSE:BURL) won two Bed Bath & Beyond spaces at 1875 Palm Beach Lakes Blvd in West Palm Beach, 2701 N. Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale, S.W. 33rd Ave. and S.W. 22nd St. in Coral Gables and a Buy Buy Baby in Miami at 8241 W. Flagler St. It was part of an aggressive $12 million aggregate bid for 44 store leases by the Burlington, New Jersey-based company.
Arts, crafts and fabric retailer Michael’s won the Bed Bath & Beyond store at 1400C Glades Road in Boca Raton for $450,000.
Furniture retailer Haverty Furniture Cos. (NYSE: HVT) was listed as the tentative winner of the Buy Buy Baby store in Pembroke Pines at 11350-11360 Pines Blvd. with a $100,300 bid.
Burlington agreed to take over the largest share of the leases, auction records disclosed on June 27 show. The New Jersey company obtained six more leases for $1.53 million outside the auction process, bringing the total number of locations to 50 for $13.53 million. Michael’s had the second-largest share with nine leases for $2.55 million, followed by Haverty with four leases for $464,334.

In early May, senior vice president at JLL’s Miami office Rafael Romero told the Business Journal that landlords for several of the 22 Bed Bath & Beyond-owned stores in South Florida were already negotiating with retailers.

Native Realty’s CEO Jaime Sturgis added that, “Many of the BB&B leases were structured a long time ago and have fixed annual increases, which can cause them to fall behind on market rate rents, this presents an opportunity to re-let the spaces at market rate, and to a company with strong financials, both of which are beneficial to ownership.”

At an average size of 30,000 square feet, Bed Bath & Beyond stores also tend to be in ideal locations, Sturgis said, and told the Business Journal back in May that the spaces should be filed in as little as six months.

“BB&B retail sites were typically in good in-fill locations with strong traffic counts and ample on-site parking so they will work well for a variety of retailers looking to enter or expand in the market,” Sturgis said.

The successful bidders still have a process to go through, including demonstrating assurance of their ability to make good on their bids, Read said. That process will end on July 18 with a lease sale hearing, where they still have to be approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court’s New Jersey district.