The companywide liquidation of Buena Park-based furniture chain Easy Life Furniture Inc. is likely to leave a sizable hole in retail space across Southern California, not to mention a vacant warehouse in the company’s hometown.
Easy Life, a family-owned and operated furniture retail chain that’s been in business for 18 years, filed for bankruptcy this month, listing assets of $6.7 million and liabilities of approximately $12.4 million.
The company, which sold more than $43 million worth of furniture last year, plans to liquidate its operations over the next two months, according to bankruptcy court filings.
Easy Life President Jimmy Hsieh said in a court filing that the after-effects of the Great Recession “and the lingering fits and starts in the economy over the past five years have dealt continuous blows to the company,” which once operated 18 showrooms but now has 14 stores in Southern California.
Those 14 stores total about 280,000 square feet. Its largest store, in Palmdale, is 33,000 square feet.
Two are in Orange County, a roughly 15,800-square-foot store at the Tustin Marketplace and a 18,000-square-foot location at The Row in Laguna Hills.
Laguna Hills was the site of the company’s first location, which opened in 1996.
The stores will be closed this month on a rolling basis following going-out-of-business sales, according to the company, which reported about $1.5 million in unpaid rent at the time of its May 1 bankruptcy filing.
Also scheduled to close is a 196,000-sqaure-foot warehouse on Knott Avenue in Buena Park that the company uses for its headquarters. The company expects that location, which is owned by a New York-based pension fund, to close at the end of June.
Buena Park’s industrial market encompasses about 13.5 million square feet, and vacancy rates are at about 3%, according to brokerage data.
The company said in court filings that it explored other options prior to the bankruptcy, including an offer to sell the company for $1 and the assumption of its liabilities, but that it found no takers.
Easy Life had 220 employees as of last month, according to the company. At its peak, it employed more than 300 throughout Southern California.
Tustin Flip
A founder of Santa Ana-based storage device maker sTec Inc. has put another notable commercial real estate property on the sales block.
Centurion Plaza, a three-building, 139,558-square-foot office project on Red Hill Avenue in Tustin, was recently listed for sale with an asking price of $25.8 million, or $185 per square foot.
Brokers with the Newport Beach office of CBRE Group Inc. have the listing for the complex, which is across from the Tustin Legacy development.
Centurion Plaza LLC, a Newport Beach-based entity, paid $13.5 million for the complex two years ago when it was bank-owned. The property is now about 47% leased.
Property records show the LLC is managed by sTec founder Mike Moshayedi, who left the company in 2007. The technology company was acquired last year by Irvine-based Western Digital Corp. for $340 million.
Other members of the Moshayedi family who were also part of sTec are listed in public documents as owners of The Shoppes at Chino Hills mall, which was listed for sale last month and is expected to fetch close to $150 million, about $55 million more than what they paid for it in 2010.
The Moshayedi family also owns several commercial properties on Coast Highway in Newport Beach, and as of 2011, also owned property in Van Nuys, as well as in Canada, according to regulatory filings.
Ready to Rumble
The Southern California chapter of the commercial real estate development group NAIOP is gearing up for its annual Night at the Fights networking event on May 15 at the Hotel Irvine.
Tickets are $650 per person. The ring sponsor for the event is HFF, and an after-party is being presented by Auction.com.
The event, in addition to boxing and MMA fights, includes dinner and live entertainment. There’s a nautical theme to this year’s Night at the Fights, according to NAIOP.
