Big Box Real Estate Vacated By Bankrupt Retailers Has Fueled Store Growth For Painted Tree Boutiques

Painted Tree Boutiques has opened over 50 stores in the past 10 years -- nearly all of which are in real estate vacated by bankrupt Big Box retailers

Painted Tree Boutiques describes itself as a "creative community of shops" and an “Etsy marketplace and Pinterest catalog come to life."

But it is actually a 50+ store Big Box retail chain that was founded in 2015.

At Painted Tree customers can shop hundreds of small shops all under one roof — like an indoor art fair or antique mall.

Each Painted Tree Boutique executes short term leases with a group of independent vendors to set up shop in its ~30,000 - 40,000 square foot Big Box stores.

Vendors stock product, advertise and design their space which is typically leased for a 12 month period and subject to fixed rent and product commissions.

But the stores are operated by Painted Tree staff — vendors can choose to be onsite but often are not.

The result?

Vendors have access to high traffic, low cost and well designed retail space without having to open a brick-and-mortar store.

And they don't even have be present to sell product as sales are automatically entered into a POS that vendors can access to track sales.

Painted Tree is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2025 and has at least 7 new store openings planned over the next several weeks.

More growth may be on tap — in large part because of the real estate opportunities that have been created by the bankruptcies of Big Box retailers.

Nearly all Painted Tree stores are located in real estate that was vacated by bankrupt Big Box retailers such as Sports Authority, Babies R Us and Stein Mart.

The majority of Painted Tree Boutiques, however, are located in real estate vacated following the bankruptcy of Bed Bath & Beyond.

Nearly 1/3 of Painted Tree Boutique stores are located in former Bed Bath real estate — despite the fact that the Company filed for bankruptcy and vacated most of its stores less than two years ago.

But Painted Tree may be able to take advantage of even more real estate opportunities in the coming years as the recent bankruptcies of Big Lots, Party City and Joann Inc. alone may result in ~3,000 additional Big Box store closings.

For now Painted Tree will focus on opening stores in its current pipeline.

Including the newest Painted Tree Boutique that is set to open this week in Clive, Iowa.

It will be the chain's 15th repurpose of a former Bed Bath & Beyond store.