Lucky’s founders bid $3.7M for seven stores

NIWOT — Lucky’s Market founders Bo and Trish Sharon seek to pay $3.7 million to acquire seven stores that the company has said would remain open after its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

Documents filed Friday with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware set the $3.7 million price for LM Acquisition Co. LLC to acquire leases for stores in north Boulder; Fort Collins; West Melbourne, Florida; Columbia, Missouri; Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio; and Traverse City, Michigan. Lucky’s submitted a press release last week stating that the Sharons would seek to acquire those locations. LM Acquisition is listed as a Delaware limited liability company, with Jason B. Sharon as its sole member.

The stalking-horse bid is subject to court approval and refers to a bid arranged in advance of a bankruptcy auction, effectively serving as a reserve bid. If other bids for the assets are received, the bankruptcy court would conduct an auction March 11.

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The $3.7 million purchase price was detailed in a motion filed by Lucky’s Market Parent Co., and came along with several similar motions to sell other Lucky’s assets, including:

• $7.8 million for sale of five leases and one real property asset to Aldi, which seeks to purchase stores in Coral Springs, Orlando, Venice, Sarasota and Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
• $1.25 million for sale of a lease in Orlando to Seabra Foods XIV Inc.
• A motion for sale of five leases to Publix Super Markets Inc. for stores in Clermont, Naples, Neptune Beach, Orlando and Ormond Beach, Florida, provides contradictory information on the purchase price. It states that the “price payable under the Agreement for the Assets shall be Thirteen Million Seven Hundred Eighty Thousand and No/100,” but then lists $11,483,333 as the price.

A call to attorneys for Lucky’s to clarify the apparent clerical error was not returned.

Assuming the lower number, the various stalking-horse bids amount to $24.23 million.

Lucky’s filed for bankruptcy Jan. 27 after word spread that the chain would close 32 of 39 stores nationwide and cancel plans to open another 19 stores.

Lucky’s has filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notice with the Colorado Department of Labor announcing that the north Boulder store would close. However, the stalking-horse agreement for LM Acquisition provides some clarity for that filing.

“Sellers shall terminate, as of the closing date, the employment of all of sellers’ store level employees at the store properties,” the document states. “Buyer may make employment offers to such store employees as buyer, in its sole discretion, shall determine and on such terms and conditions as buyer, in its sole discretion, shall determine.”