6 Bids For Bankrupt Toys R Us' Highland Park Location

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — The Highland Park location of liquidating retailer Toys R US is one of several due to be auctioned Thursday, as six firms have placed qualified bids to pick up the Deerfield Road real estate. On March 15, Toys R Us announced it was liquidating the inventory of all of its 735 U.S. stores after filing for bankruptcy last year, and the first of those locations are set to hit the auction block this week.

"I am very disappointed with the result, but we no longer have the financial support to continue the Company's U.S. operations," said CEO Dave Brandon.

Sunday, the company shut down its online store with a message encouraging shoppers to drop my their local stores and take advantage storewide markdowns of up to 30 percent.

“We have shut down the website for any purchases but our brick and mortar stores are open and holding going out of business sales," said a message on the company website. "We encourage you to stop by your local store and take full advantage of the deep discounts and deals available."

Here's who's bidding for the Highland Park Toys R Us:

Amerco Real Estate Co.

• Phoenix-based Amerco buys, sells and leases commercial real eastate and "provides real estate and development services to the U-Haul System." It acquires empty land, self-storage facilities and "existing buildings for conversion to self-storage."

Blue Water Capital, LLC (registered to Kenneth R. Andre, founder of Andre Investment Inc.)

• The Deerfield-based real estate investment trust is operated by Ken Andre, a licensed real estate managing broker and one of the developers who bought 225 Wilmot Rd., the site of the former Congregational Church of Deerfield.

BRFI LLC (Apparent Delaware-registered LLC of Balboa Retail Partners)

• Los Angeles-based Balboa is "a real estate investment company dedicated to pursuing...retail investments where we can add value through in-house leasing, redevelopment and management capabilities. Since formation in 2011, the company has acquired over 3 million square feet of retail assets covering 18 states."

Festival Development

• Los Angeles-based Festival says its "expertise includes regional malls, lifestyle destinations, community centers, neighborhood centers, urban retail, street retail, adaptive re-use and retail-driven mixed-use properties."

HP Retail Division Capital LLC (Created by several Hamilton Partners)

• Itasca-based Hamilton Partners describes itself as "one of the leading commercial, retail and industrial real estate developers in the Chicago and Salt Lake City Region" with a portfolio of "office, industrial, apartment and retail properties with projects in Chicago, Salt Lake City, Denver, Milwaukee and Raleigh Durham."

Pacifica Companies

• San Diego-based Pacifica is a "privately-owned real estate firm" with international operations and resorts, residential, senior living and commercial development projects in the U.S.

According to court documents filed in Virginia, Toys R Us' debtors will have until April 12 to give final approval to any sales after this week's auction, according to CNBC.

Toys R Us was continuing to add stores right up until its collapse.

While other retailers scaled back their less profitable locations, bankruptcy filings show the company had 1,691 stores at the start of 2017, up from 1,622 the prior year. Its filings also showed it owed $7.9 billion to more than 100,000 creditors and had just $6.6 billion in assets.

Bloomberg reported last month that Amazon is considering buying some of the emptying big box locations. Neither company has commented on the idea.

The 1610 Deerfield Rd. site is within the Briergate Business District, where the Highland Park City Council established its latest TIF district in December.

Related:

• Toys R Us Will Sell Or Close Remaining Illinois Stores
• Toymakers Launch Last-Ditch Effort To Save Toys R Us
• Toys R Us Files Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, Outlines Strategy
• Toys R Us Closing Is The End Of An Era
• Toys R Us Files Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, Outlines Strategy