Vista Real Estate Investment Corp. Inc. can buy the former Home Valu Inc. store in Urbandale for $1.5 million, a bankruptcy judge in Minnesota ruled May 4.

Home Valu closed the store at 4105 N.W. 120th St. in 2010 as it shuttered other locations in Minnesota and Wisconsin and announced a liquidation sale that preceded its forced Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing on Jan. 29 of that year.

Judge Nancy Dreher initially approved the sale in March, but the order was amended and refiled. She overruled $191,942 in claims against proceeds of the sale. However, she also ordered the payments of $132,569 in past-due property taxes, nearly $140,000 in other expenses and a credit to Urbandale-based Vista Real Estate for $130,000 in pending real estate taxes.
 
Net proceeds were to be shared with General Electric Capital Business Asset Funding Corp., which carried a $1.9 million mortgage on the business. Dreher said the bankruptcy estate should receive 5 percent of net proceeds, with the remainder going to General Electric.

Home Valu closed after the recession eroded demand for its home improvement products. Creditors that said they were owed more than $500,000 by the company then filed a petition asking that Home Valu be required to liquidate its assets under federal bankruptcy laws.

The company originally was known as Plywood Minnesota when it was founded in 1969 by former U.S. Sen. Rudy Boschwitz. Its name changed to Home Valu after a radio contest in 1993.

Home Valu claimed assets of $23.6 million – including the Urbandale store and four others with a total value of $12.7 million – and debts of $26.6 million in an amended bankruptcy filing. Revenues had fallen to $66 million in 2009 from $85 million in 2008, according to the court record.