Sears Chairman Eddie Lampert won the bid to buy the Sears Holding Corp.'s assets, and those appear to include two properties in Northeast Florida.
ESL Investments Inc., led by Lampert, is buying the Sears assets for about $5.2 billion.
The hedge fund bought the Sears store at Orange Park Mall at 1910 Wells Road on Feb. 11 for $7.7 million, Clay County records show.
TF Orange Pk LLC bought the 18-acre property from Sears, Roebuck & Co. The deed was recorded Thursday.
TF Orange Pk is led by Transform Dove Holdco LLC, whose address is the same as ESL Investments Inc. Bloomberg says ESL Investments was founded in 1988 and based in Bay Harbour. Edward Scott Lampert is its chairman and CEO.
The almost 200,000-square-foot Orange Park Mall Sears store was built in 1975. The property includes an auto center.
Transform Dove registered 11 LLCs with the state Feb. 14 for Sears properties in Florida.
Among those are TF Jacksonville LLC. Sears bankruptcy records indicate that property was opened in 1981, which is when Sears opened an almost 200,000-square-foot store at Regency Square Mall. Sears closed that store in 2016 and retained ownership, but has listed it for sale.
A sale of that property to Lampert has not been recorded.
Sears leases at The Avenues mall.
Sears Holdings Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Oct. 15 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York.
On Jan. 17, Sears Holdings Corp. announced that ESL Investments was chosen as the winning bidder in the company's auction. Subject to bankruptcy court approval, ESL will buy the company's assets.
That order was entered Feb. 8.
In the Jan. 17 announcement, the restructuring committee of the Sears Holdings board of directors said it was “pleased to have reached a deal that would provide a path for Sears to emerge from the Chapter 11 process.”
It continued: “Importantly, the consummation of the transaction would preserve employment for tens of thousands of associates, as well as the relationships with many vendors and suppliers who provide Sears with goods and services.”