Bankrupt cookware store Sur La Table sold. Here’s what we know about lone Idaho store
Sur La Table, the Seattle cookware chain that filed for bankruptcy protection, has been sold.
A joint venture between e-commerce investment firm CSC Generation and Marquee Brands bettered an opening bid last week from affiliates of Fortress Investment Group during an auction.
The companies, whose identities were first reported by the Wall Street Journal, did not respond to emails for comment.
The new owners paid $90 million for the company that opened in 1972 with a single store at Seattle’s Pike Place Market. They have promised to keep at least 50 of the chain’s 121 stores open.
It’s unknown whether the lone Idaho store, at The Village at Meridian, is one of those that will remain open and continue to hold in-store cooking classes. The 5,779-square-foot store, at 3540 E. Longwing Lane, opened in August 2014. It was not among the stores identified last month for closure in August or September.
Sur La Table closed its stores temporarily as the coronavirus pandemic swept the nation. A liquidation was planned before Fortress Investment Group submitted a so-called stalking-horse offer, which serves as an opening bid for the assets of a failing company.
The sale requires approval from a federal bankruptcy judge in New Jersey, where the bankruptcy case was filed. The sale would preserve 2,000 jobs, the company said in a previous bankruptcy court filing.
CSC Generation was founded in 2016 and has since bought the intellectual property of bankrupt department-store chain Bon-Ton Stores, which traces its roots to York, Pennsylvania, in 1898 and operated stores primarily in the North and the Midwest. CSC Generation also operates home-decor chain Z Gallerie, which closed its lone Idaho store at The Village in Meridian in 2019, after five years.
Marquee is a brand-management firm owned by investor funds managed by Neuberger Berman.
This story was originally published August 12, 2020 at 4:00 AM.
