Macy’s Billion-Dollar Question: What’s More Valuable, Real Estate or the Business?

A potential buyout of Macy’s by an investor group revives an old theory: that much of the value in retail lies in real estate.

Macy’s shares surged Monday after a Wall Street Journal report that Arkhouse Management and Brigade Capital Management submitted a buyout proposal Dec. 1 valued at $5.8 billion. The investors proposed to acquire Macy’s stock they didn’t already own for $21 a share, a roughly 32% premium to where shares closed the day before.