Bealls Buying Three Closed Kmarts

BRADENTON, FL-Spotting a quick opportunity to grow its 375-store national chain, Bealls Inc. of Bradenton, FL expects to close this week on the purchase of three former Florida Kmart Corp. properties totaling an estimated 300,000 sf in Oldsmar, Ormond Beach and Boynton Beach, the company says in a prepared statement.

Bealls and Beall’s Outlet Stores Inc. are also negotiating lease assumptions on two other closed Kmart stores totaling 200,000 sf in Edgewood, FL and Apopka, FL. The Kmart stores average 100,000 sf, area brokers who have dealt with the properties in the past tell GlobeSt.com.

Beall’s acquisition and planned lease deals total an estimated 500,000 sf, Tampa-area retail brokers close to the transaction tell GlobeSt.com.

Bealls officials couldn’t be reached at GlobeSt.com’s publication deadline to learn the value and actual size of the acquisitions. But Central Florida retail brokers familiar with previous Kmart closing transactions tell GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity the leasing transactions are valued at about $15 million, or $50 per sf.

Brokers say the former leased Kmarts will probably be re-leased for about $7 per sf, placing the estimated rent value of the negotiated 200,000 sf of leased space at $1.4 million per year.

In April, Troy, MI-based Kmart closed 25 stores totaling an estimated 2.5 million sf. For Bealls, operating the estimated 100,000-sf Kmart locations means the chain has formally outgrown its original 35,000-sf store size which formed the bulk of the company’s expansions in the 1950s, brokers tell GlobeSt.com.

Founded in 1915 by E.R. Beall, the privately held company has 60 stores in Florida totaling at least 3.6 million sf, brokers estimate. The company operates Beall’s Department Stores and Beall’s Outlets in Florida, Georgia, Texas and California, according to its Web site. Bealls Inc.’s average annual sales are $500 million.