Discount retailer Filene's Basement LLC and parent company Syms Corp. have canceled the auction of their 24 leases.

Documents do not disclose why the auction set for Thursday, Dec. 22, was canceled or what the company will now do with its leases. Harald O. Stavenas, a spokesman for debtor counsel at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, declined to comment on the canceled auction.

Judge Kevin J. Carey of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware in Wilmington approved the bidding procedures for the lease auction on Dec. 16 and was scheduled to consider approval of the sales on Dec. 28.

The 24 leases cover 22 stores and two warehouse locations. The Secaucus, N.J., debtor said in documents that it needed to sell the leases by the end of the year because once its going-out-of-business sales conclude, the debtors will no longer need their properties.

Bids were due Dec. 20. It is unclear whether the debtors received any bids. Landlords were to have been permitted to attend the auction and bid on their own leases.

Hilco Real Estate LLC is conducting the marketing process and sale of the leases. Ross Block, Hilco Real Estate's vice president overseeing the process, could not be reached Friday.

Documents show the debtors' monthly expenses for the leases total about $4 million.

Filene's also seeks to sell its intellectual property assets. Hilco Streambank, another unit of Hilco Trading LLC, is marketing the debtors' trade names, various trademarks, Internet addresses, websites and other intellectual property. Included in the sale is the trademarked Running of the Brides name for Filene's annual wedding dress sale.

No bidding procedures for the IP assets had been filed as of Friday.

Filene's and Syms filed for Chapter 11 on Nov. 2 with two other affiliates. The cases are jointly administered.

Filene's is a nationwide bargain store that started in the basement of Boston department store Filene's, where old ladies often fought over marked-down clothing or hid merchandise in hopes that it would be further discounted. The store, whose slogan is "where bargains were born," is also famous for the annual Running of the Brides event.

Syms is also known for its bargains, thanks to its throaty founder and spokesman, the late Sy Syms, and his oft-repeated motto that "an educated consumer is our best customer." His daughter Marcy now runs the discount seller of clothing.

Syms acquired Filene's during the company's second bankruptcy stay for $64.4 million on June 18, 2009.

Mark Chehi,Jay M. Goffman,Mark A. McDermott,David M. Turetsky,Nancy A. Lieberman and Morris J. Kramer of Skadden are debtor counsel.

Bernard Douton of Rothschildis Filene's investment banker, and Alvarez & Marsal LLC is its financial adviser.

Mark T. Power, Janine M. Cerbone and Alison M. Ladd of Hahn & Hessen LLP and Zachary I. Shapiro,Michael J. Merchant and Paul N. Heath of Richards, Layton & Finger PA represent the creditors' committee.

Thomas B. Walper,Seth Goldman and Bradley R. Schneider of Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP and Robert J. Dehney,Gregory W. Werkheiser and Matthew B. Harvey of Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell LLP are counsel to the equity committee.