Private equity firm Onyx Partners is taking another run at acquiring a national portfolio of 117 J.C. Penney stores for nearly $1 billion.
The Boston-based company outlined its latest proposal to the trust that's conducting the sale of the retail properties. It's offering $934 million for the stores, which span 15.7 million square feet across 35 states. In December, the firm's first offer, slightly higher at $947 million, was rejected.
Handling the sale of the stores that have long-term leases with J.C. Penney is Copper Property CTL Pass Through Trust. The Jersey City, New Jersey-based trust was created in the wake of the department store chain's 2020 Chapter 11 filing, with the goal of liquidating real estate assets for the benefit of investors.
In July last year, the trust announced it had an agreement to sell the portfolio to Onyx. But five months later, the trust rejected Onyx's initial offer, claiming the firm hadn't met a Dec. 26 deadline for the acquisition to be completed. Onyx denied those allegations, and litigation ensued.
In the letter of intent, Onyx said it has all the required capital to complete the acquisition and that the closing date would be Sept. 15. The trust has not responded to the proposal that's now past the stated expiration deadline, according to an Onyx spokesperson.
Copper Property and Hilco Real Estate, which is helping the brokerage Newmark market the portfolio, didn't respond to several emails from CoStar News seeking comment. And Copper Property as of Monday afternoon hadn't filed any documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission about the new offer.
Any sale of the J.C. Penney stores won't affect the retailer's operations at those locations, according to a Catalyst Brands spokesperson. Catalyst is the holding company that owns J.C. Penney.
"As previously stated, any potential real estate transaction would not impact the operations of these JCPenney store locations, all of which have long-term leases and would remain open to continue to serve our customers and communities," a Catalyst spokesperson said in an email to CoStar News on Monday. "Any potential transaction is merely a transfer of ownership of the physical stores and would not change the nature of our long-term leases on these locations."