Sears selling 16 stores in online auction

Sears is selling more than a dozen stores in an online auction.

Credit: Scott Olson

Credit: Scott Olson

Sears is selling more than a dozen stores in an online auction.

Sears Holdings is selling off 16 stores in an online auction.

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Store locations include Ohio, Indiana, Texas, Missouri and Michigan. The 16 properties are mostly attached to malls and located in suburban markets, according to the auction site Real Insight Marketplace.

The Wall Street Journal reported roughly 200 investor groups have expressed interest in bidding on the properties. All bids are due by May 1, Real Insight Marketplace’s website says.

Two of the three Ohio malls that are home to Sears stores being sold are owned by Starwood Retail Partners, which named Columbus retail real-estate executive Michael P. Glimcher as CEO in September, the Columbus Dispatch reported.

Washington Prime, which owns the Mall at Fairfield Commons and the Dayton Mall, signed an agreement in March to acquire four Sears department stores and four adjacent Sears Auto Centers for $28.5 million. The acquisition is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2018.

The Sears properties are located at the following centers: Longview Mall, located in Longview, Texas; Polaris Fashion Place, located in Columbus; Southern Hills Mall, located in Sioux City, Iowa; and Town Center at Aurora, located in Aurora, Colorado. No Dayton area properties have been affected.

Sears Holdings closed more than 350 stores in 2017.