West Coast Won't Feel Heilig-Meyers Closures - Much

LOS ANGELES-Though markets in other parts of the US could suffer as a result of the pending closure of 302 Heilig-Meyers furniture stores, owners of retail projects in California and other parts of the West shouldn’t be too worried, brokers and real estate analysts tell GlobeSt.com.

The Richmond, VA-based chain announced last week that it would shutter the stores and lay off 4,400 workers across the nation as part of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. That’s bad news for many relatively small towns in the Midwest and South, where the typical Heilig-Meyers store of 15,000 to 20,000 sf is considered fairly large.

But it’s a different story out West, experts say. Though the chain plans to close 81 stores in California and a few dozen more in neighboring states, the West Coast retail market has been strong and owners of retail property shouldn’t have much trouble replacing Heilig-Meyers with one or more new tenants.