The move left 30,000 employees of the Woodland Hills, California-based company without work, and creditors -- including landlords -- lining up to get whatever they can after the company sells its inventory."Now those landlords are in line like the rest of their creditors -- and probably in the back of the line to get paid," said Suzanne Mulvee, Property & Portfolio Research real estate strategist.
The loss of the large tenant, whose stores typically run from 35,000 to 40,000 square feet, is likely to be felt by some publicly traded shopping center owners, such as Developers Diversified Realty Corp DDR.N, where Circuit City accounted for 1.7 percent of its annual base rent revenue, and Kimco Realty Corp KIM.N, where the chain accounted for 1.5 percent of its annual base revenue, according to Green Street Advisors analyst Nick Vetter.
Other landlords include Inland Western Real Estate Retail Trust, Simon Property Group Inc SPG.N, Vornado Realty Trust VNO.N, Weingarten Realty Investors WRI.N, First Capital Realty Inc (FCR.TO), Kite Realty Group Trust KRG.N and Arcadia Resources Inc (KAD.A), according to financial data firm SNL Financial.
Yet the pain will be felt throughout the retail real estate market, several real estate experts said.
"A company like Circuit City is the poster child for what's going on," Mulvee said. "There's a bigger disease at work here."
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