Practice Areas
SHB Practice Areas

Retail Property Strategies

While financial market disruptions and the economic downturn have and will continue to create a multitude of legal and business challenges for the retail industry, the full extent of the fallout is not yet known. What is clear, however, is that many retailers face the need to re-evaluate fundamental growth strategies that may result in the need to close and divest themselves of or otherwise restructure some or all of their stores.

Retailers need to stay ahead of the curve in assessing their specific situation as these challenges come into sharper focus. The changes that flow from this disruption do not have to be negative. Those companies that anticipate and manage the risk through perceptive opportunity assessment, strategy and execution will emerge from this cycle in the strongest, most competitive position possible.

Recognizing the need for a legal partner to bring creative and efficient analysis, strategies and implementation, SHB has formed a Retail Property Strategies Practice to bring focus to a full range of options for businesses in this fluid environment.

Retail Property Services

SHB’s Retail Property Strategies Practice offers comprehensive services to assist clients in analyzing potential business and legal risks and competitive opportunities created by market disruptions and economic downturns.

  • Analyze options for restructuring of leased and owned real property portfolios.
  • Negotiate restructuring of current lease obligations.
  • Advise and coordinate with all parties in judicial restructurings.
  • Cost-effective and efficient review and analysis of pertinent site documentation, including leases, title encumbrances, franchise agreements and management and services contracts.
  • Coordinated management of litigation exposures and opportunities.
  • Highly effective non-litigation handling of legal disputes and claims.

Recent Experience

Members of the Retail Property Strategies Practice recently completed the following transactions:

  • Analysis and documentation transferring 520 company owned and leased retail sites in conjunction with a $2.2 billion + securitization.
  • $335 million + sale/leaseback of 181 stores located in 23 states throughout the country in under 30 days from start to finish.
  • Sale of 39 operating retail sites located in Nevada and California to a franchisee.
  • Sale of 59 retail locations located in Texas to multiple franchisees.
  • As counsel for largest secured creditor in a lumber retailer bankruptcy, SHB coordinated with trustee and his professionals the sale of 200 retail locations.

Cost-Effective Document Analysis

Clients frequently turn to SHB for a cost-effective approach to document collection, review and analysis for large-scale corporate due diligence projects. When faced with short time frames and limited internal resources to respond to executive management inquiries or decisions, third-party requests or government investigations, in-house counsel have turned to SHB and its rapid response team. The firm's ultra-efficient approach provides swift and effective answers to retail and other commercial clients on fast-paced transactions. SHB, however, does not merely throw lawyer after lawyer on a project. Instead, SHB prides itself on its scalable architecture that allows the firm to match internal expertise to projects so the information needed by management can be timely and efficiently gleaned from a review of five hundred or five million pages. No matter the size of the project, the SHB corporate team can efficiently produce the needed results.