Stop & Shop Gets 18 Ames Leases

QUINCY, MA-The Stop & Shop Supermarket Co. secured the US Bankruptcy Court’s approval to proceed with its lease designation agreement reached with the former Ames Department Stores. The court approval allows Stop & Shop, which has its headquarters here, to acquire the designation rights to 18 former Ames store leases for $20 million.

According to the agreement, Stop & Shop has a period of time to market each of the leases and the right to designate a proposed assignee for each lease. Kelly O’Connor, a Stop & Shop spokesperson, says that while many of the properties will become new Stop & Shop stores, some of them will have different uses. The leases included in the agreement involve former Ames stores located in various New England states and one former Ames store in Virginia.

Stop & Shop employs over 57,000 associates and operates 335 stores throughout Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island. Ames, a former discount retail chain, had approximately 330 stores before it filed for bankruptcy. The company finished closing its stores this past summer.