Bankrupt grocery chain Haggen on Tuesday postponed the auction of its 33 core stores until Feb. 11. The auction, which could decide the fate of the Haggen store on State Route 20 in Oak Harbor, had been scheduled to occur Feb. 5. Haggen gave no reason for the delay.
The auction is now slated to take place at 9 a.m. Eastern time Feb. 11 at the offices of Haggen’s attorneys in New York City. A hearing on the sales will take place Feb. 17 at 2 p.m. Eastern time, as originally scheduled.
Haggen, of Bellingham, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sept. 8 and is now selling all its stores.
Haggen hopes to sell its remaining 33 stores in Oregon and Washington as a group, it has said. By buying up former Albertson and Safeway stores, it expanded from 18 stores with 16 pharmacies to 164 stores with 106 pharmacies, and from 2,200 employees to more than 10,000.
Island Ventures LLC, the landlord of the shopping mall in which Oak Harbor Haggen store is located, on Jan. 29 objected to the bankruptcy court that the store’s lease is expiring Feb. 1.
Under the law, Haggen can continue as a month-to-month tenant of Island Plaza Shopping Center, even without a lease, but the lease’s expiration could mean a new owner would find itself without a lease, Island Ventures said.
Safeway Stores in March 2015 assigned its lease to Haggen when Haggen took over the store at 31565 State Highway 20.
Haggen owes a total of $88,130 in rent and common-area maintenance to Island Ventures, according to the Jan. 29 filing.
Island Ventures was founded in 1997 by Karen and Richard Knight, of Redmond. They could not be reached for comment Monday.
Louis Colosimo, a managing director for private investment firm Comvest West, declined to comment on whether the West Palm Beach, Fla., firm will bid in the auction.
Comvest West in 2011 became Haggen’s major stakeholder.
“It’s much too sensitive for me to say anything at all right now,” Colosimo said.
About 85 non-management employees at the Oak Harbor Haggen are represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, said union spokesperson Tom Geiger.
“People at the core stores seem hopeful about the upcoming auction,” Geiger said Tuesday.
