Sears Holding Corp. (Hoffman Estates, Ill.) announced yesterday its plans to convert its Aventura, Fla. store into an open-air retail development, to be called Esplanade at Aventura, that will include other retailers, as well as hotels, offices, dining and a scaled-down Sears store. The department store chain would repurpose the Aventura store’s parking lot, auto center and the store itself as part of the project. Sears would also use some of the real estate adjacent to the existing Aventura Mall, which the company already owns.
The decision is part of a strategy by the indebted corporation to leverage its real estate holdings. Sears Holdings has begun leasing some of its stores to other retailers, such as British fashion retailer Primark Stores Ltd. (London). Last week, the company also announced plans of a possible spinoff of several hundred properties as a real estate investment trust, according to Bloomberg.