Burlington Nabs 45 Joann Spaces

Burlington Stores Inc. (Burlington, N.J.) is taking over the leases of 45 Joann store locations, according to a court filing associated with the craft retailer’s bankruptcy case, Retail Dive reports. Burlington will take over the leases this month and next, including locations in California and Texas.

A few other Joann spaces will be taken over by companies such as Hobby Lobby and Boot Barn, but the fate of the majority of the remaining vacancies is not yet known.

Joann’s decision in February to shutter all 300 of its stores marks an opportunity for some companies looking to grow their footprint, RD notes.

“Our recent conversations with real estate contacts suggest very little new shopping center growth is planned in the U.S. for the foreseeable future — meaning chains with high store-growth ambitions, like [Burlington], will need to be aggressively going after locations from retail bankruptcies along the way,” according to the analysts at Evercore ISI.

Overall, Burlington operates just over 1000 stores in 46 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.