Hudson’s Bay Companies, the owner of Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor, is looking to reclaim capital, and one of its shareholders has offered a solution: cash in on condos above its stores.
The Canadian retailer has been cutting losses across the business as its share price has dropped 22 percent in the past two years.
This month it announced the closure of its flagship Lord & Taylor store at 424 Fifth Avenue after selling the building last year to WeWork and Rhone Capital for $850 million. It also recently sold its online shopping site Gilt, and in March, the company sublet a full floor at 250 Vesey Street to Scotiabank.
At its annual meeting Tuesday in Toronto, a shareholder asked why the company hadn’t thought to turn the space above its stores into condos and cash in on them, Bloomberg reported.
“Are you waiting for us to go into a recession before you sell some of your real estate, or do something with it?” asked Heino Ader, an investor who’s watched his stock declined for the past two years, according to the report.
The company’s share price bump up 3.6 percent to $11.67 per share Tuesday. [Bloomberg] — David Jeans