Sears Holdings Announces Remaining Stores Included In Primark Lease Agreement

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill., April 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Sears Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ:SHLD) late last year entered into lease agreements with Primark, a leading fashion retailer in Europe, for seven standalone stores in the Northeastern United States.  The company previously named five locations and today announced that the two remaining stores will be located at Burlington Mall in Burlington, Massachusetts; and South Shore Plaza in Braintree, Massachusetts. Sears will continue to have a significant retail presence in both of these malls, which are owned and operated by Simon Property Group, Inc.

"Sears Holdings continues to strategically transform its real estate portfolio by working with leading retailers such as Primark and mall owners," said Jeff Stollenwerck, president of Real Estate for Sears Holdings. "Primark will bring increased customer traffic to each of these malls and dramatically enhance the retail shopping experience as we rationalize our selling space to improve the productivity of our stores." 

Following are details about the two store locations:

• Burlington Mall: The Sears store and the detached Sears Auto Center will continue to operate in approximately 196,000 gross square feet on the lower level of this mall. Primark will lease approximately 73,000 gross square feet (approximately 54,000 net square feet retail space), predominantly on the second level of the mall. 
• South Shore Plaza: The Sears store and Sears Auto Center will continue to operate in approximately 138,000 gross square feet on the lower and second level. Primark will lease approximately 71,000 gross square feet (approximately 52,300 net square feet retail space), predominantly on the second level of the mall. 

"We are pleased to have Primark come to Burlington Mall and South Shore Plaza," said Richard S. Sokolov, President and Chief Operating Officer of Simon Property Group. "Primark should provide an excellent shopping environment which will give our shoppers another great reason to patronize Burlington Mall and South Shore Plaza."

In addition to Burlington Mall and South Shore Plaza, the other Sears locations with Primark as its tenant are Danbury Fair (Danbury, Connecticut), Freehold Raceway Mall (Freehold, New Jersey), King of Prussia Mall (King of Prussia, Pennsylvania), Staten Island Mall (Staten Island, New York) and Willow Grove Mall (Willow Grove, Pennsylvania). All of the space is expected to be delivered to Primark over the next four to eight months.

Joint Venture, Proposed Relationship with Seritage Growth Properties
The Sears store at Burlington Mall is one of the 10 properties that Sears Holdings contributed to the joint venture (the "JV") with Simon that was announced on April 13, 2015. Sears Holdings will lease the store back from the JV. 

On April 1, 2015, Seritage Growth Properties ("Seritage"), a real estate investment trust formed by Sears Holdings, filed a registration statement on Form S-11 with the Securities and Exchange Commission, providing for a planned distribution of subscription rights to purchase Seritage shares to Sears Holdings stockholders. Shortly following the consummation of the rights offering, Sears Holdings expects Seritage to purchase its 50 percent interest in the JV, which will include the Sears store at Burlington Mall. The Sears store at South Shore Plaza is not included in the JV. 

About Sears Holdings Corporation
Sears Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ: SHLD) is a leading integrated retailer focused on seamlessly connecting the digital and physical shopping experiences to serve our members – wherever, whenever and however they want to shop. Sears Holdings is home to Shop Your Way^®, a social shopping platform offering members rewards for shopping at Sears and Kmart as well as with other retail partners across categories important to them. The company operates through its subsidiaries, including Sears, Roebuck and Co. and Kmart Corporation, with full-line and specialty retail stores across the United States. For more information, visit www.searsholdings.com.

About Simon Property Group
Simon is a global leader in retail real estate ownership, management and development and a S&P100 company (Simon Property Group, NYSE:SPG). Simon's industry-leading retail properties and investments across North America, Europe and Asia provide shopping experiences for millions of consumers every day and generate billions in annual retail sales. For more information, visit simon.com.

NEWS MEDIA CONTACT:
Sears Holdings Public Relations
(847) 286-8371

Simon Property Group
Les Morris
(317) 263-7771

SOURCE Sears Holdings Corporation