Cortlandt Liquidating LLC is in a post-liquidation Chapter 11 posture, with the former Century 21 estate proceeding under a liquidating plan framework rather than a going-concern restructuring. The case began when Century 21 Department Stores LLC and affiliates filed Chapter 11 petitions on September 10, 2020, after COVID-19 shutdown pressure, severe liquidity constraints, and a dispute with insurers over policies said to provide up to $350 million of coverage pushed the retailer toward an orderly wind-down; management also disclosed a prepetition ABL structure that included a JPMorgan-led revolving facility and substantial secured debt exposure in the Veit first-day declarationDkt. 13.
The filing company was an off-price department-store operator with thirteen stores and an e-commerce business, but the Chapter 11 path was not built around emergence as an operating retailer. The debtors sought first-day relief to stabilize the estate, use cash collateral, maintain ordinary-course systems, and preserve value while pursuing store-closing sales with Hilco Merchant Resources as liquidation consultant, according to the Veit first-day declarationDkt. 13. The plan path later crystallized around a liquidation structure: the debtors filed technical modifications to their first amended joint plan of liquidation and plan administrator agreement in the amended liquidation plan filingDkt. 870, reflecting a six-class plan framework administered for estate wind-down and recoveries rather than operating reorganization.
The remaining case activity appears centered on estate administration and litigation recoveries. After plan implementation, the plan administrator pursued adversary litigation, including a 2022 turnover and related recovery action against James Betesh in the Plan Administrator complaintDkt. 1. No current hearing calendar or near-term milestone is provided in the context pack, so the case reads as a mature liquidating estate whose key work is claims, distributions, and prosecution or resolution of retained causes of action.
