Christmas Tree Shops closing stores after bankruptcy filing
The Christmas Tree Shops at Tanger Outlet in Deer Park. Credit: Dawn McCormick
At least one of the Christmas Tree Shops’ two Long Island stores will close next month, as the bankrupt retailer works to unload merchandise at going-out-of-business sales.
Selling seasonal and home décor year-round at approximately 70 stores in 20 states, the Middleborough, Massachusetts-based retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May. It began liquidation sales early this month, and merchandise is on sale for up to 60% off.
The chain has two stores on Long Island — in Deer Park and Riverhead.
Hilco Merchant Resources, the Northbrook, Illinois-based company managing the sales, did not respond to an inquiry about when all the stores will close.
A local store manager provided a timeline for a shuttering. The Riverhead store will close Aug. 22, store manager Greg Koplinka said Tuesday.
A manager at Christmas Tree Shops at Tanger Outlets Deer Park said store employees had not been told when the shop will close. He directed further media inquiries to Hilco.
Christmas Tree Shops had been planning to open a 38,000-square-foot store this past spring in the former Babies R Us space in Sayville Plaza in Bohemia.
That store never opened and a new tenant is being lined up, said Robert Delavale, vice president and director of leasing at Breslin Realty Development Corp., the Garden City-based real estate firm that owns part of Sayville Plaza through an affiliate.
Christmas Tree Shops, which is owned by Handil Holdings, filed for bankruptcy in May to restructure its finances and closed 10 stores in order to ensure long-term success and reduce the company's debt.
But the process took a detour two weeks ago when Handil defaulted on a $45 million loan from Eclipse Business Capital SPV LLC and ReStore Capital LLC that was supposed to help the company maintain normal business operations during the Chapter 11 process.
With TNS
Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.
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