From my perspective in Michigan Transformco owns so much commercial property that it is almost impossible to ki-l. I don’t understand why seritage exist they manage the same properties.
I lived in the Ann Arbor/Brighton/Howell area when Sears was really breathing it’s last breath as a retailer. I worked at Sears essentials store. It was like a classier version of K-mart. It could have worked but Sears/K-mart management was just....... bad.
The location they chose for the store made it difficult for people to get to. In an area that had a lot of choices for big box retailers, to the point large retail buildings are always vacant, they chose the worst possible location. It’s possible it had been a K-mart before. They ended up dividing the space into several smaller storefronts; the dense part of an outdoor mall that you have to walk to. People go to the big box retailers nearby. It works. This brings me around to my next point
The Sears/k-mart retail operation is over. Unless the can get rid of middle managers that are stuck in the past there is no hope. I don’t think that transform is trying to liquidate the retail operation but they are trying to start from the ground up. The are expanding into online retail. They own some very undesirable properties in almost every region in America, especially in the Midwest and northeast. They only retailer in a position to directly compete with Amazon is transform. Sears started as a catalog store. The brands are still doing alright.
I believe seritage only exists to handle real estate transactions and appraisal for transform. The combined assets of Sears holding Corp are often owned by different subsidiaries. Seritage buys the property from whatever transform subsidiary and sells it to a 3rd party. Seritage isn’t necessary anymore. Transform has identical listings to Seritage. The key difference is that transform is not publicly traded while seritage is. If seritage and transform were to merge transform would be public without an IPO; the amount of property they own is so large that it isn’t ethical for a private company. I think the game plan all along was to transform an undervalued corporate mess into some sort of functioning business.
I watched them do their research in Ann Arbor. The pulled off the sale and renovation of property they now lease flawlessly and made millions. Now I live in Lansing and they are doing the same thing here. The “fire sale” description isn’t accurate. Some properties are sold off quick and cheap because they suck. After making money selling and managing property transform still owns properties in both markets. The same day delivery of website orders is possible now the have the infrastructure in every single market.
I believe the end game is the dissolution of transform and all the subsidiaries of Sears holding Corp and transform. Assets and debt will go to seritage. This company, whatever it may be called, will be successful. I wouldn’t be surprised if seritage is volatile right now because they are preparing to make announcements.