Deals

Regional independent Bashas’, Inc. is leveraging tools available under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code to get out from under real estate leases that are costing the company millions of dollars a year.

Publix Supermarkets Inc. has purchased 119 acres of industrial land in the Orlando, Fla., area, for $13.5 million, with the intention of building a massive new warehouse and distribution center, according to a published report.

Bashas’ Supermarkets will shutter “a handful” of locations this summer for with the final closings to occur by month’s end.

Weis Markets, Inc. will add a dozen stores to its present 154-store base following its acquisition of Binghamton N.Y.-based Giant Markets (no relation to Ahold’s Mid-Atlantic similarly named supermarket subsidiaries). The transaction is expected to close on Aug. 21.

Store closing sales began Friday at 25 Bruno’s, Food World and FoodMax supermarkets in Alabama and Florida, at which discounts of up to 50 percent are being offered on a huge inventory of brand foods and beverages, household products and general merchandise.

With several development projects across the country stalled or delayed until the economy turns a corner, a Pennsylvania retail development dubbed Exeter Commons is bucking the trend, with 94 percent of its space pre-leased as a late-summer opening approaches.

Bruno's Supermarkets, LLC said last week that after an auction of its assets, Southern Family Markets Acquisitions II, LLC, an affiliate of C&S Wholesale Grocers, Inc., purchased 31 store locations on a "going concern" basis and bought the other 25 stores on a liquidating basis. Liquidator Hilco Merchant Resources was a joint bidder on the sale.The deal must be approved in a court hearing scheduled for today. The deal is worth $45.8 million.

A U.S. Bankruptcy court has approved a request by Bruno’s Supermarkets, LLC to extend a final sale hearing set for this week, to enable purchase negotiations to continue, according to a published report.