Archive for November 12th, 2007
by David Bodamer November 12th, 2007
Stories in both major Chicago daily papers said that the FBI has information that there may be plans to attack Chicago and Los Angeles area malls during the holiday shopping season.
Both stories downplayed the threat. In the Chicago Tribune:
Arthur Everett, assistant special agent-in-charge of the FBI’s Chicago office, said the threat contained no specific targets and amounted to “third-hand information.”
Officials said that similar warnings have been issued in the past and that the FBI had been aware of the potential threat for several weeks.
“A tip of this kind is inherently difficult to completely discount or verify,” Everett said at a news conference at Chicago police headquarters. “Yet, in an abundance of caution, the FBI has alerted fellow law enforcement entities to be extra vigilant. … What we ask now is simply that the public remain vigilant, as it has in the past.”
And in the Chicago Sun-Times:
The FBI downplayed a warning Thursday about possible holiday terror attacks on Chicago and Los Angeles shopping malls, but a source said police can’t disregard such threats — pointing to a similar plot last year in northern Illinois.
The FBI message to law-enforcement agencies was based on uncorroborated intelligence and did not identify specific malls.
Related Topics: Management & Leasing, News, Retail Real Estate, Security |
by David Bodamer November 12th, 2007
Let’s see what you think. Here’s a sampling of what’s filling up my e-mail inbox:
• Many men would rather spend time on famously unpleasant activities than go to a mall, according to a poll conducted for Yahoo by Harris Interactive.
More than a third – 34 percent – of all “online adults would rather do laundry than go holiday shopping in the mall. Men, in particular, are mall-averse, with almost one in five men (18 percent) saying they would rather do their taxes, 33 percent preferring to wash their car, and a quarter of men (25 percent) saying they would rather shovel snow.”
• The poll found the same tight-spending mood that a torrent of other research has noted: More than a quarter (27 percent) of holiday shoppers said their holiday budgets will be smaller compared with last year.
Full story.
Related Topics: News, Quirky, Research, Retail |
by David Bodamer November 12th, 2007
Grocery store chain Albertsons awarded Jones Lang LaSalle with an exclusive marketing agreement to sell a 72-store portfolio totaling 3.2 million square feet. Located in nine southeastern, central and western states, JLL is offering the portfolio as a whole with an expected $240 million price tag, or as three regional sub-portfolios.
Many of the stores in the portfolio formerly housed Albertsons grocery stores and are now leased to tenants including ALDI, Big Lots, Ross Dress for Less, Wal-Mart and Whole Foods Market. JLL says more than 80% of the estimated $18 million NOI is comprised of credit-rated tenants.
Story at CoStar.
Related Topics: Investment, News, Retail, Retail Real Estate |
by David Bodamer November 12th, 2007
Restoration Hardware Inc., the California-based home-furnishings chain, agreed to be acquired by buyout firm Catterton Partners for $267 million.
The $6.70-a-share offer is more than double Restoration Hardware’s closing price yesterday, the company said today in a statement. The company, which has 110 locations in 30 states, said it will solicit higher offers until Dec. 13.
The chain, hurt by the worst U.S. housing slump in more than a decade, is facing its third unprofitable year in the past five. Founded in 1979 as a specialty retailer of fixtures for older homes, Restoration Hardware sells furniture, lights and bedspreads and had $712.8 million in revenue last year.
Full story.
Related Topics: News, Retail |
by David Bodamer November 12th, 2007
The Galleria’s owner, General Growth Properties, is also facing the prospect of substantial punitive damages because the jury found the company acted with “malice, oppression or fraud” by interfering with negotiations between the restaurant chain and Caruso Affiliated Holdings, the developer of the new shopping center. The punitive damage phase begins on Tuesday.
The case is the latest chapter in a long-running battle pitting General Growth, a publicly traded real estate investment trust based in Chicago, against Rick J. Caruso, the chief executive of Caruso Affiliated.
Full story.
Related Topics: Management & Leasing, News, REITs, Retail Real Estate |
