Boscov’s officially back in family hands

The Boscov family today closed on the deal to buy back its 39-store department store chain from bankruptcy for about $300 million.

The investor group led by Albert Boscov, 79, and his brother-in-law Edwin Lakin of Reading, missed their Black Friday buyback deadline by a week because of financing delays.

But the deal went through after Susquehanna Bank and other lenders agreed to provide short-term loans to cover about $50 million in state and other public aid expected to come in over the next two months, said J. Scott Victor of NatCity Investments, Inc., investment banker for the Boscov-Lakin group.

"It's awesome," Victor said. "It's a true holiday miracle that this was able to be done."

A call to Boscov was not immediately returned.

"He's very happy and, I think, relieved to know that it's final and that he can move on with things and get back to being on top," said Claudia Springer, who represented Boscov in the deal.