Boscov’s Department Stores LLC, the nation’s largest family-owned chain of department stores, plans to purchase the Macy’s in Marley Station Mall in Glen Burnie, Md., with nine other stores, seller Federated Department Stores Inc. said yesterday.
Federated put the stores up for sale after it bought May Department Stores, Hecht’s former parent company, in August for $11 billion. The stores are in shopping centers where Federated now owns two department store spaces.
Federated, a Cincinnati company, plans to convert Hecht’s stores to Macy’s in the fall, including the Hecht’s store in Marley Station. The Macy’s site will become Boscov’s.
Boscov’s department stores carry lines such as Liz Claiborne, Tommy Hilfiger, Panasonic and Champion. The price range is similar to J.C. Penney’s.
The other nine stores Boscov’s plans to purchase are Macy’s in Owings Mills and Perry Hall, Md., and Kaufmann’s and Strawbridge’s in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Clearance sales at the stores began late last month.
In Marley Station Mall, Boscov’s would join anchors J.C. Penney, Sears and Macy’s. The shopping center, between the Mall in Columbia and Arundel Mills shopping centers, has had a hard time attracting retailers until recently.
Boscov’s brings in annual revenue of $1.1 billion. The Reading, Pa., company finished a restructuring this month after its chairman, Albert Boscov, and president, Edwin Lakin, retired.
The chain has 40 stores in Danville, Va.; Frederick, Salisbury and Westminster, Md.; Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Delaware.
Terms of the deal, which is expected to be finalized in the second quarter, were not disclosed. Federated said the sale funds would be included in the $400 to $500 million of after-tax proceeds expected from duplicate-site sales across the county.
Boscov’s did not return calls for comment.
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