A Texas federal bankruptcy court has granted the landlord of nearly 30 SQRL fuel station and convenience store locations authorization to evict Gas Hub Investments LLC from 18 of its c-stores in several states, including Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and Florida.
Cameron Property Co. LLC, the landlord of the 18 properties, could “immediately pursue and exercise any and all contractual and legal rights and remedies" for the 18 stores, court documents dated Sept. 20 said. The landlord is also awaiting repossession on three more Florida properties and one Texas location, court documents said.
Court documents entered Sept. 4, reveal that the 30 landlords of the SQRL convenience-store chain wanted out of Chapter 11 to avoid an automatic stay that they said was blocking them from getting ownership of the SQRL locations for themselves as well. The landlords urged the Texas federal bankruptcy court to let them “obtain possession of the properties.”
“SQRL and its owner, Gas Hub Investments LLC (Gas Hub), have repeatedly and improperly frustrated the Landlords’ efforts to obtain possession of their properties that are being wrongfully possessed by SQRL,” court documents said.
The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas division filed the motion on Sept. 20, which expels or removes Gas Hub Investments, which is owned by Jamal Hizam, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Gas Hub acquired all the membership interests in SQRL and SQRL Holdings on April 5. “Shortly thereafter, SQRL began breaching the leases by failing to pay the rent due for April 2024 and for subsequent months,” according to court documents.
One month later, Gas Hub Investments tried to force SQRL into Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, claiming that SQRL owes it more than $3 million in unpaid rent, court documents show.
SQRL Service Stations LLC filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Aug. 16 with more than $1.2 billion in debt, according to court documents from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas in Dallas.
SQRL’s bankruptcy petition features a list of creditors, including Blue Owl Capital, which issued a subpoena on Sept. 25 to Gas Hub and its legal counsel, Sidney Sheinberg. Blue Owl is requesting a “wide range of documents and communications relating to the acquisition of SQRL Service Stations,” court documents said.
According to court documents Gas Hub is looking to reject the subpoena. Gas Hub’s acquisition of SQRL Service Stations was “followed by a period of confusion, due in part to contradictory statements by the prior owner, Blake Smith, vague language within the contract, and the discovery of SQRL Service Stations LLC Arkansas. These circumstances have complicated the process of gathering relevant documents,” the court documents said.
An emergency hearing has been set for Monday, Oct. 7, that will consider Gas Hub’s motion to quash the subpoena from Blue Owl.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.