After several months of waiting for a decision, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York overseeing the Borders liquidation case granted Plaza Las Américas’ petition to retain control of the space the bookstore held at the Hato Rey mall prior to going out of business.
A day before the last of the remaining Borders stores on the island is slated to close, Plaza Las Américas confirmed it has submitted the highest bid for the 34,000 square-foot prime location in the Hato Rey mall.
Plaza Las Américas will submit an offer before the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York to retain the space that will soon be vacated by Borders bookstore, as part of its liquidation process, the mall’s management said Wednesday in what seems like a surprise move.
The Plaza Las Américas Borders bookstore will be auctioned by a New York bankruptcy court on Sept. 20, opening the door for a group of local investors headed by entrepreneur Amaury Rivera to pick up the lease for the once thriving operation.
Borders Group, parent of the U.S. mainland’s once-dominant book retailer, is marking the final chapter of its 40-year history by seeking the U.S. Bankruptcy Court’s approval Friday to sell itself off to a liquidator, a decision that is expected to immediately trigger a going-out-of-business sale that will wrap up sometime in September.
The decision Thursday by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge overseeing the Borders Chapter 11 proceeding could send the bookstore chain, which still has one location left in Puerto Rico, into a liquidation of its assets.
The fate of the last remaining Borders bookstore in Puerto Rico will likely be known in about two weeks when its Ann Arbor, Mich.-based parent company goes to U.S. Bankruptcy Court to seek permission to sell itself. If the petition is denied, the beleaguered bookstore will have to liquidate the assets it has left, including its Plaza las Américas location.
Time is running out for the Borders bookstore in Carolina, which is set to close on April 15 — just two weeks shy of the contractual deadline that Illinois-based Hilco Merchant Resources, LLC has to finish liquidating as much as it can from the stores destined to close.
Expecting it to be a “short sale,” Borders Group on Saturday will begin liquidating everything at the 200 stores it will close as part of its Chapter 11 procedure, including the Carolina and Mayagüez locations.
Michigan-based mega books retailer Borders Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a New York court on Wednesday, confirming industry reports that it would seek to reorganize deteriorated finances.
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