STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — All Christmas Tree Shops throughout the country — including the chain’s Staten Island location — are expected to close after the company defaulted on a loan as part of its bankruptcy deal, according to recent reports.
The company, which is owned by Handil Holdings, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May to restructure its finances and closed 10 stores in order to ensure long-term success and reduce the company’s debt.
But the process took a detour earlier this week when Handil defaulted on a $45 million loan from Eclipse Business Capital SPV LLC and ReStore Capital LLC that was supposed to help the company maintain normal business operations during the Chapter 11 process.
The Wall Sreet Journal, citing documents filed with U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, was the first to report the company’s act of nonpayment. According to CBS News, a judge ordered funding for the “likely liquidation process,” unless a buyer can be found at the last minute for the chain, which still operates 70 stores in 20 states.
The news agency noted that CTS Chairman Marc Salkovitz testified in court that lenders have asked for closing sales to begin on July 7 “so that we don’t have to pay September rents, because we would be done and out of those stores before the end of August.”
According to The Wall Street Journal, liquidation sales could start as early as this week.
Founded as a small holiday store — called The Christmas Tree Gift Shop — in the early 1950s on Cape Cod, in Yarmouthport, Mass., the small business was transformed into a destination for one-of-a-kind items with astonishingly low prices sometime in the 1970s by a new owner, Chuck Bilezikian.
According to the CTS website, the single Massachusetts store grew into three quaint, treasure-filled spaces: the Barn Shop, the Front Shop and the Back Shop (hence the name Christmas Tree Shops with an “s”) and became a sort of treasure hunt space for local residents and Cape Cod…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply