That also explains why the artwork wasn't included in the bankruptcy as it was likely owned by the Basha family and not the company.rwsandiego wrote: ↑December 21st, 2022, 1:36 pm Phoenix Business Journal ran a story today about the new support center. The following stood out to me:
"...Upon acquiring Bashas' a year ago, Raley's secured a short-term lease with the Basha family to operate out of the current headquarters at 22402 S. Basha Road in the Ocotillo neighborhood. Minor said the pursuit of a new office has been underway since the start of the year. Between the support and administrative teams working out of the headquarters and the sales and merchandising team working out of the offices at the distribution center, the new office is designed to house most of the local operations for Raley's. ..."
"...As for Bashas current headquarters it will eventually vacate, the future of that space will remain up to the Basha family.
“Raley’s will maintain the lease on the property through the end of 2023 to ensure there is a smooth transition from the current location in Chandler to the new support center in spring 2023," said Ashley Shick, director of communications an public affairs for Bashas’ Family of Stores. "The property will remain in the hands of the Basha family and it is up to them what becomes of the property after the support center is relocated.”
In other words, the Basha family will redevelop the property or sell it for market price.
It seems like this site would be a prime location for redevelopment into condos / apartments.
I'm also curious what Raleys plans to do long term with Bashas'. It seems that they're letting it coast on its own right now. Again, the Bashas' banner has become a non factor in metro Phoenix and Tucson and they aren't even in mid-sized metro areas such as Prescott, Yuma and Sierra Vista.
Food City is also a declining banner consisting of a bunch of older traditional stores in declining areas. In the areas where the declining areas have gentrified, Food City has closed its store.
AJ's is a strong premium banner but only has so many opportunities where it makes sense (and it has those locations covered). It was overstored and had gone through a store fleet rationalization.
Bashas' / Raley's best hope would be if they could obtain the financing to obtain divested Albertsons / Safeway locations in the Kroger / Albertsons merger but all signs point to the Albertsons / Safeway Southwest division being either sold or spun off entirely if the merger even happens at all.