{"id":94,"date":"2013-03-05T15:34:58","date_gmt":"2013-03-05T19:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmarketslaw\/?p=94"},"modified":"2014-08-27T14:39:33","modified_gmt":"2014-08-27T18:39:33","slug":"superstorm-hurricane-sandys-impact-upon-business-retailers-bankruptcy-and-alternatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmarketslaw\/2013\/03\/05\/superstorm-hurricane-sandys-impact-upon-business-retailers-bankruptcy-and-alternatives\/","title":{"rendered":"Superstorm Hurricane Sandy’s Impact Upon Business & Retailers – Bankruptcy and Alternatives"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy many businesses have been negatively impacted financially\u00a0throughout\u00a0 regions from\u00a0 Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.\u00a0 Hardest hit are businesses located not only along the New Jersey, Staten Island and\u00a0 Long Island\u00a0 NY\u00a0 coasts but in areas\u00a0 that\u00a0 have never experienced such a devastating disaster.\u00a0 Areas\u00a0 such as\u00a0 Hoboken NJ<\/em>, lower Manhattan<\/em> and the NYC\u00a0East Side<\/em>.\u00a0 Even\u00a0 businesses\u00a0 located\u00a0 in\u00a0 inland\u00a0 communities<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Not\u00a0 only small \u201cMom & Pop\u201d businesses but large businesses\u00a0 as well have been severely\u00a0 impacted by what \u00a0many\u00a0 have referred\u00a0 to as Superstorm Sandy.\u00a0 For\u00a0 example a large retailer headquartered\u00a0 in New Jersey was\u00a0 forced to file for Chapter 11<\/strong> relief\u00a0 under\u00a0 11 USC 101 et seq<\/a>.<\/em> recently as a direct\u00a0 consequence of\u00a0 Superstorm Sandy and its aftermath.\u00a0 Big M, Inc. which operates\u00a0 a retail clothing store chain doing business under the\u00a0 trade names Mandee Store<\/em>, Annie sez<\/em> and Afaze<\/em>\u00a0 filed\u00a0 for Chapter 11 on January 6, 2013.\u00a0 Big M operates stores located in Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.\u00a0 It\u00a0 employed approximately 1,200 people.<\/p>\n

Big M in recent years took measures to implement and carry out various critical cost-cutting and income producing measures.\u00a0 As a result of these efforts in 2012\u00a0 Big M was tracking\u00a0 a positive $1.9 million EBITDA\u00a0 versus the negative EBITDA\u00a0 of\u00a0 $8.9 million the\u00a0 year prior.\u00a0 As a result of\u00a0 Superstorm Sandy practically all\u00a0 of Big M\u2019s retail stores\u00a0 were\u00a0 closed in the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut Tri State area.\u00a0 A majority of its stores were closed for over a week.\u00a0 Does this sound familiar to other businesses?\u00a0 Big M\u2019s business did not return to pre-Superstorm levels.\u00a0 Its customers were struggling with their own personal issues and Big M allegedly was not able to obtain insurance proceeds from its carriers in a reasonable and timely matter.\u00a0 Big M filed\u00a0for Chapter 11.<\/p>\n

Small businesses as well have experienced\u00a0 the same impact\u00a0 from Superstorm\u00a0 Sandy.\u00a0 All businesses whether retail, manufacturing or service businesses,\u00a0large<\/em> and small<\/em> should consider seeking protection and relief under a Chapter 11\u00a0 filing to\u00a0 save\u00a0 and salvage their business.\u00a0 Or consider other alternatives such as Out of Court work outs<\/em> with creditors, Assignments for the Benefit of Creditors<\/em>,\u00a0judicial receiverships<\/em>.\u00a0One of these could be a viable option for a business either small, large\u00a0 or a sole proprietorship.<\/p>\n

Finally,\u00a0there are various Federal and State funds available<\/strong> to assist business recoveries such as the Hurricane Sandy Recovery Act and\u00a0 Community Development Block Grants. However, many\u00a0business owners have little or no experience in participating in these programs.\u00a0Businesses\u00a0should seek\u00a0immediate guidance from professionals who can help them comply with the Federal and\u00a0 State requirements to access these funds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy many businesses have been negatively impacted financially\u00a0throughout\u00a0 regions from\u00a0 Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.\u00a0 Hardest hit are businesses located not only along the New Jersey, Staten Island and\u00a0 Long Island\u00a0 NY\u00a0 coasts but in areas\u00a0 that\u00a0 have never experienced such a devastating disaster.\u00a0 Areas\u00a0 such as\u00a0 … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Superstorm Hurricane Sandy’s Impact Upon Business & Retailers – Bankruptcy and Alternatives”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,59,63,60,58,62,56,57,64,65],"ppma_author":[91],"class_list":["post-94","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-alternative-solutions","tag-bankruptcy","tag-business","tag-business-recovery","tag-chapter-11","tag-federal-aid","tag-hurricane-sandy","tag-retailers","tag-state-aid","tag-walter-greenhalgh"],"authors":[{"term_id":91,"user_id":15,"is_guest":0,"slug":"wjgreenhalgh","display_name":"Walter J. Greenhalgh","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmarketslaw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2014\/07\/greenhalghwalter-125x150.jpg","author_category":"","last_name":"Greenhalgh","first_name":"Walter J.","job_title":"","user_url":"http:\/\/www.duanemorris.com\/attorneys\/walterjgreenhalgh.html","description":"Read Walter's bio.<\/a>"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmarketslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmarketslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmarketslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmarketslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmarketslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmarketslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmarketslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmarketslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmarketslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmarketslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=94"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}