City Sports is planning to liquidate all of its 26 stores after failing to find a buyer willing to keep some locations open.
The Boston-based specialty athletic chain, which filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy last month, had sought to liquidate eight of its stores and search for a buyer for the remaining 18 locations, but it was unable to meet its Oct. 30 deadline.
Instead, the company’s assets will be sold to Hilco Global and Gordon Retail Partners, which won an auction overseen by a bankruptcy court in Delaware. The purchase price was not disclosed. Going-out-of-business sales will kick off tomorrow in all store locations.
City Sports also sold its intellectual property, including the City Sports name, for $400,000 to Soccer Post, a soccer-gear retailer with stores in 16 states.
Founded by high school friends Mike Kennedy and Eric Martin in 1983 with a location on Boston’s Massachusetts Avenue, City Sports had struggled in recent years due to increased competition, rising lease costs and severe weather last winter that slowed sales. Despite vigorous cost-cutting efforts, the retailer, which was acquired by Highland Consumer Fund in 2008, could not avoid bankruptcy.
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As of last month, City Sports claimed $38.6 million in assets and $39.6 million in liabilities.
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