Mccrory Corp. Retains Djm Asset Management To Sell Store Leases And Fee-Owned Properties

Furniture World Magazine

McCrory Corp. announced that it has retained court-approved real estate consultants DJM Asset Management, Melville, NY, to conduct a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy sale of the company’s store leases and fee-owned properties. Bids for the leases are due on or before January 9, 2002. The auction for leases only will be held on January 16, 2002 at the offices of Hofheimer Gartlir & Gross, LLP, 530 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10036. Private sales are also available, and encouraged. Bids for fee-owned properties are due immediately. These properties will be privately sold or auctioned separately on dates to be determined. McCrory’s 200 stores range in size from 2,800 to 83,100 square feet. The roster includes mall, strip center and downtown locations in Alabama, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. Bidders will also have an opportunity to buy or lease the company’s 383,000-square-foot leased distribution center in York, PA . McCrory’s real estate holdings also include 150,000 square feet in downtown Pittsburgh. Store information can be viewed and downloaded from DJM’s web site, www.djmasset.com. Property files are also available from DJM on CD ROM. McCrory Corp., a privately held discount store operator, filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the Federal Bankruptcy Code on September 10, 2001 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, DE. The bankruptcy filing covered the York, PA-based corporation and nine subsidiaries. As previously announced, going-out-of-business sales began in early December in the dollar stores operated by McCrory. Over 190 of the stores operate under the Dollar Zone name, with all items priced at $1.00 or less. Other locations operate under the McCrory, McCrory Dollar, TG&Y, TG&Y Dollar, GC Murphy and JJ Newberry banners. The latter group includes units that had been converted to the ‘dollar store’ format, as well as several larger locations that also include higher-priced merchandise. The inventory sales are being conducted with the assistance of Buxbaum Group, of Encino, CA. Buxbaum Group is also assisting with the sale of the store fixtures and equipment, as well as distribution center machinery, equipment and rolling stock. McCrory Corp. traces its roots to a company founded by John Graham McCrorey, who opened his first store in Pennsylvania’s Westmoreland County around 1880. That single store grew into a national chain that, at its peak, exceeded 1,300 units. For information on the leases or fee-owned properties, contact McCrory’s Special Counsel Scott R. Kipnis of the New York-based law firm Hofheimer Gartlir & Gross, at (212) 897-7898, fax is (212) 897-4999; or DJM Asset Management LLC at (631) 752-1100; fax is (631) 752-1231. Contacts at DJM are Joe DiMitrio (x227), Thomas Laczay (x225), James Avallone (x224), or Emilio Amendola (x223). Private sale offers should be made to Mr. Kipnis. Based in Melville, New York, DJM Asset Management, LLC, a Gordon Brothers Group company, assists retailers nationwide with the disposition of unwanted locations. DJM, whose clients have included Roberds, Hit or Miss, Natural Wonders, Track N’ Trail, HomePlace, Lechters, Hechinger’s, Laura Ashley, Charming Shoppes, Loehmann’s, Elder Beerman, Jumbo Sports and Pergament, has been involved in the disposition and restructuring of over 45 million square feet of retail space during this past year alone.