Washington Prime Group has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the Southern District of Texas, following an agreement it reached with many of its creditors to restructure its debt. It intends to stay in business and, to that end, has secured $100 million in debtor-in-possession financing from its creditors for its day-to-day operations during the Chapter 11 process.

The restructuring agreement was led by SVPGlobal; altogether, the creditors hold 73% of the REIT's secured corporate debt and 67% of its unsecured notes. Washington Prime plans to deleverage its balance sheet by nearly $950 million, either by the equitization of its unsecured notes or by repaying in full in cash all of its corporate-level debt. One possibility is the sale of some of its assets to repay its debts.

Washington Prime Group is hardly the only retailer to run into troubles during the pandemic-led downturn. With shoppers increasingly going online to buy goods, retail was struggling long before COVID-19. But the shutdown orders and store closures during the pandemic sent many companies scrambling for Chapter 11 protection. Just to cite one example, in one week in May 2020, J Crew filed for Chapter 11 protection, Neiman Marcus became the first major department store to file for bankruptcy during the pandemic and Gold's Gym filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.