Hilco JCP, LLC, an affiliate of Hilco Real Estate, LLC and manager of Copper Property CTL Pass Through Trust, said Thursday the trust has brought to market 121 net-leased JCPenney properties located across 35 states representing more than 16 million square feet. The majority of the portfolio’s properties are located in major metropolitan areas such as Austin, Miami, Houston, Los Angeles and New York. Fifty percent of the portfolio is in the Sunbelt, including 21 in Texas.

Averaging 132,700 square feet per store, the portfolio is the subject of an absolute, triple-net long-term master lease with the sole tenant, JCPenney. The retailer is owned in a joint venture comprised of two of the largest retail mall owners in the U.S., Simon Property Group and Brookfield Asset Management. 

Hilco JCP, LLC has chosen Newmark’s national retail capital markets team to market this portfolio. The targeted deadline for submitting offers is Feb. 26. Click here for additional information.

A retail portfolio spanning 120 JCPenney stores across the U.S. could fetch more than $1 billion in what industry professionals are calling a rare offering for an institutional investor, CoStar reported. 

Newmark plans to list the 15.86-million-square-foot portfolio in 34 states early next month on behalf of Copper Property CTL Pass Through Trust, the entity formed in the wake of JCPenney’s 2020 bankruptcy proceedings.  

The trust was created in 2021 to sell 160 stores and a half-dozen industrial properties to help reimburse the retailer’s investors. It has completed the sales of 37 stores and six warehouses. 

The 120 stores Newmark plans to market are long-term leased to JCPenney. The average store size in the portfolio is 132,000 square feet on an average tract of 8.36 acres. 

“We are marketing this globally,” Newmark managing director Paul Penman told CoStar. “Everyone is going to see it, but with the store locations being in 34 states and not just in the gateway markets, I would expect this to attract domestic capital already familiar with JCPenney.”