Continuing its campaign to cut its debts, BlueLinx Holdings announed today it sold a non-operating facility in Allentown, Pa., and entered into sale-leaseback agreements for its distribution centers in Fort Worth, Texas, and Miami.
“With these property sales and all others incurred since April 2016, BlueLinx will fully satisfy its July 2017 [commercial mortgage-backed security] mortgage payment obligation of $60 million three months ahead of schedule,” the Atlanta-based distributor said. In January, BlueLinx executed a sale-leaseback deal for its yard in Tampa, Florida, and sold a non-operational yard in Wausau, Wis. And last November, BlueLinx sold non-operating facilities in National City, Calif., and Ypsilanti, Mich. (Click here to see more deals.)
“We are exploring additional sale and leaseback transactions, alternative refinancing options as well as other real estate optimization strategies to continue to improve the company’s leverage and financial strength,” Mitch Lewis, BlueLinx’s president and chief executive officer, said in a statement.
All the sales are showing up in the company’s corporate reports. Earlier this month, the distributor’s fourth-quarter earnings report noted that interest expenses in the final three months of 2016 dropped to $5.3 million from $7.0 million a year earlier, while the balance sheet’s long-term debt line shrank to $271 million as of year end 2016 from $377.8 milion roughly a year before.
