Harvey Spack Field has brought to market a portfolio of 74 UK and Ireland stores for home improvements group Homebase on behalf of the administrators.
Homebase appointed Teneo on 13 November as administrator after its bank ended talks for a critical refinancing deal.
The DIY and garden chain has more than 130 shops across its UK operation. Sky News has reported that CDS Superstores, which owns The Range homeware outlets and is run by Chris Dawson, was preparing to buy about 75 shops as part of a pre-pack administration deal, which could save about 1,600 jobs. Yesterday it confirmed it had bought 70 stores.
A number of Homebase stores have already been taken by other retailers. British Land today said four out of the six Homebases at its retail parks portfolio have already been sold to retailers.
Harvey Spack Field has set a deadline of 29 November for bids to be submitted for the leasehold stores. Unconditional premium offers are being invited to bid on individual sites with multisite and portfolio bids also being considered.
The stores are spread across the country and range in size from 80,000 square feet at a site at Snowdon Drive in Milton Keynes to the smallest, a 15,455 square feet store in Saffron Walden. The longest lease extends to 2037 while the shortest expires this year.
Homebase was founded by Sainsbury's and GB-Inno-BM in 1979 and was owned by Home Retail Group from October 2006 until it was sold to the Australian conglomerate Wesfarmers in January 2016. Wesfarmers rebranded the group as Bunnings. Subsequently, restructuring group Hilco bought it for £1, changed back the name and announced it would close 42 stores through a company voluntary arrangement. Most recently Wilko and CDS were linked to takeover bids.
Hilco Capital drafted in Teneo this year to review cost-saving options after Homebase reported a loss of £84.2 million.
In August Sainsbury's bought 10 leasehold stores from HHGL that are trading as DIY chain Homebase, for conversion into Sainsbury's supermarkets.