When the last Circuit City store closed Sunday evening, retail centers across the country were left with gaping holes.
The Henrico County-based chain had more than 22 million square feet of retail space as of February 2008, when it operated nearly 700 stores. Circuit City, which filed for bankruptcy in November, began closing stores last fall.
In the Richmond area, the chain shut the doors on six stores Sunday, leaving more than 150,000 square feet of space empty.
Most Circuit City superstores had between 30,000 and 35,000 square feet. The chain's The City concept stores were smaller, with about 20,000 square feet. Circuit City operated two of these stores in the Richmond area, including one that opened at The Shops at White Oak Village in October.
The empty stores present a problem nationally in an economy that has hit retailers hard. Circuit City joins other chains, such as Linens'N Things, that have shut down.
C. Lee Warfield III, executive vice president of Richmond-based commercial real estate broker Thalhimer/Cushman & Wakefield, said there is some concern about filling that space locally. The vacancy rate in the Richmond market is more than 6 percent.
"The tenant pool has gotten smaller," he said, referring to a slowdown in retailer expansion.
One company that conceivably could be interested in the spaces is TJX Cos. Inc., Warfield said. The Framingham, Mass.-based discount retailer owns T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods and A.J. Wright. TJX operates stores with square footage in the mid-20,000s.
"I would think a tenant that is still expanding and is in the size category [of the available stores] would be interested in those locations," Warfield said.
He said the three most attractive Circuit City properties in the Richmond area are the former stores near Short Pump Town Center in western Henrico, Huguenot Road and Alverser Drive in Chesterfield County and Southpark Boulevard in Colonial Heights.
"Those are the crown jewels," he said.
The White Oak Village location could be tougher to fill, Warfield said.
"That center has already absorbed what it can" because the center's owners have already approached tenants that would fit its mix, he said.
Randall R. Silber, Henrico's deputy county manager for community development, said he believes the stores in his area will be leased soon. Four are in the county.
"All four of the retail buildings are in high-traffic areas," he said
As part of the bankruptcy process, Circuit City will auction off the leases for closed stores today. It will ask a bankruptcy judge to break the leases for the properties it cannot find a buyer for, which is allowed under bankruptcy law. A hearing on the leases is scheduled for Friday.
Robert Lawless, a professor at the University of Illinois law school specializing in bankruptcy, said once the auction is complete, the new tenant or the landlord will simply take over.
But previous auctions yielded little response from bidders. If the leases are not sold at auction and the bankruptcy judge allows the chain to reject them, the landlords would then become creditors.
"The only legal question might be the size of the claim the landlord gets from Circuit City's bankruptcy estate," Lawless said.
Circuit City is in the process of shutting down the rest of its operations after failing to find a buyer or the financing needed to continue operating. It had employed 34,000 U.S. workers when it started to shut down operations in January.
Between 150 and 200 employees remain at the retailer's headquarters on Mayland Drive. In the next couple of weeks, that number will dwindle to about 100, and by mid-April, another wave of workers will leave. Those who are left will wind down the chain's business affairs.
Contact Louis Llovio at (804) 649-6348 or LLLovio@timesdispatch.com.
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