Dallas-based BTWW Retail filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas on Nov. 3. According to its website, the retailer owns and operates more than 130 western, equine and workwear stores throughout the United States. The retailer listed $50-$100 million in assets and liabilities on its petition. This is BTWW's second time in bankruptcy - it last filed Chapter 11 in 2003.

BTWW's brands include Western Warehouse/Boot Town; which was a 43-store chain of western-themed retail stores until Newport Beach, CA-based Marwit Capital Partners, through its Boot Barn Holding Corp. subsidiary, acquired 22 retail stores from BTWW for an undisclosed amount on Oct. 27. The deal expanded Boot Barn's footprint from 45 to 67 stores located in California (38), Nevada (6), Arizona (14), and New Mexico (9). Marwit plans to re-brand the newly acquired stores to the Boot Barn banner after the holiday season.

There are now 21 remaining Western Warehouse/Boot Town stores remaining in Texas (16), Arizona (1), New Mexico (1) and Colorado (3) under banners Western Warehouse and Boot Town. According to CoStar Tenant, the typical Boot Town or Western Warehouse store is 9,000 square feet; however, locations range in size from 500 to 53,000 square feet.

BTWW also operates Corral West Ranchwear stores, which sells apparel and products related to ranchers and horse owners. Corral West's 72 stores are located in Washington (3), Oregon (1), Idaho (6), Montana (9), Wyoming (12), North Dakota (2), South Dakota (2), Nebraska (4), Colorado (14), Arizona (2), Nevada (3), New Mexico (5), Texas (2), Oklahoma (6), Georgia (1). According to CoStar Tenant, the typical Corral West store is 9,000 square feet, but stores range in size from 500 to 22,730 square feet.

Also under BTWW's umbrella are three Sergeant's Western World stores in Texas and two Workwear Depot stores in Milwaukee, WI and Austintown, OH.

This article appears in CoStar's Retail News Roundup: Nov. 9 to 15, 2008, a weekly column covering retail store expansions, closings, bankruptcies, acquisitions/mergers/sales, new retail developments, personnel changes, sustainability, and more.

This week in the Retail Roundup, CoStar reports on expansions or new concepts at Zounds and Great Gatherings; new retail developments in FL, KS and MI; acquisition, merger, loan or sale activity at Cole Real Estate and DDR, Whole Foods Market and Leonard Green, Boscov's, SCI Real Estate, Simon Property Group and GGP, and Talbots and J. Jill; closings, cutbacks or bankruptcies at Circuit City, Tweeter, Saks, La-Z-Boy, and WaMu; personnel announcements at Winick Realty and West Valley Properties / Rawson, Blum & Leon; Green Building news at Supervalu, and more.