Shopping center owner PREIT has filed for Chapter 11 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington.
Area holdings include Cherry Hill Mall in New Jersey and Exton Square Mall in Pennsylvania.
The filing was described as the “next step to execute its prepackaged financial restructuring plan under which the company will be recapitalized, and its debt maturities extended.”
More than a decade ago, the trust acquired holdings of the Rubin family, which included Christiana Mall.
PREIt later sold off the mall and other holdings while expanding the geographic reach of its portfolio.
PREIT has no properties in Delaware after selling off a strip center near Christiana mall seven years ago. The real estate investment trust still owns shopping centers in the Delaware Valley and elsewhere in the nation.
PREIT has struggled with a sluggish retail environment that led to some of its shopping centers losing their anchors, with some in danger of becoming “ghost malls.”
One example is Valley View Mall, in western Wisconsin, designated as a non-core property by PREiT after losing all but one of its anchors. The mall has been able to draw a medical office and supermarket.
According to a release, banks have committed to providing an additional $150 million to recapitalize the business and extend its debt maturity schedule. The plan has received support from 95 percent of its creditors.
“We are pleased to be moving forward with strengthening the company’s balance sheet and positioning it for long-term success through our prepackaged plan. We are grateful for the significant support we have received from a substantial majority of our lenders, which we expect will enable us to complete our financial restructuring on an expedited basis,” said Joseph F. Coradino, CEO of PREIT.
Additional information, including court documents and information about the court-supervised process, is available on PREIT’s restructuring website through PREIT’s claims agent, Prime Clerk https://cases.primeclerk.com/PREIT.
