Sears Owner, Mall of America Lose Lease to Bankruptcy Trustee

Sears Holdings Corp.'s liquidating trustee secured possession of a $10-a-year lease with Mall of America that was the subject of a winding legal battle that reached the US Supreme Court last year.

Neither Minnesota-based Mall of America nor Transform Holdco LLC, the successor to Sears Holdings Corp., are entitled to the 100-year lease, Judge Colleen McMahon of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled Friday. The lease was originally awarded in 2019 to Transform, an Eddie Lampert-owned shell company. McMahon later vacated a bankruptcy court decision awarding the lease to Transform.

The judge said in ...