Yesterday, I posted about Costco’s big quarter and talked about how it was indicative of discounters, grocers and warehouse clubs thriving in the current economic climate. It turns out luxury retailers aren’t doing so shabbily either. Tiffany recorded a 19 percent jump in profits.

Total sales in the Americas region, which includes the U.S., Canada and Latin and South America, rose 6 percent to $373.6 million from $353.3 million in the year-ago period due to incremental sales from new stores. Same-store sales, or sales at stores opened at least a year, in the U.S. were unchanged from the prior year.

Same-store sales rose 16 percent in Tiffany’s New York flagship store due to increased foreign tourist spending, but same-store sales at branch stores fell 4 percent. Combined catalog and Internet sales in the U.S. rose 1 percent.

Sales in the Asia-Pacific region, which includes business in Japan, in Asia-Pacific countries outside of Japan and in the Middle East, rose 21 percent to $222.0 million from $183.1 million. On a constant-exchange rate basis, sales rose 10 percent and same-store sales increased 4 percent reflecting strong growth in all Asia-Pacific countries other than Japan.

Centro is closing in on a $1.2 billion sale, according to published reports.

Centro Properties Group is close to selling A$1.2 billion ($1.16 billion) of U.S. shopping malls, as the company prepares to sign an accord with creditors, the Australian Financial Review reported, without saying where it obtained the information.

Centro, based in Melbourne, is in talks with a single party to sell 95 percent of the Centro America Fund, which holds shopping centers Centro acquired in 2006 when it bought Heritage Property Investment Trust, the Review said.

Centro could clear A$300 million from the sale, which is being managed by Lazard Ltd., the newspaper said. The company also may sell some of the assets held by the Centro Australia Wholesale Fund, which are being marketed by Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., the Review reported. Jim Kelly, a spokesman for Centro, didn’t immediately return a call from Bloomberg seeking comment.

Previous Centro posts:

• May 14, 2008, Centro’s Shield
• May 9, 2008, Centro Reaches Debt Agreement, Shares Surge
• April 3, 2008, Centro Takeover Rumors Cause Share Surge
• April 1, 2008, Centro Clears a Hurdle
• Feb. 29, 2008, Report: Blackstone, GE, Mulpha, Mirvac Bidding for Centro.
• Feb. 28, 2008, Centro Shares Surge
• Feb. 15, 2008, Centro Wins Extension
• Jan. 15, 2008, Scott Out, Rufrano In at Centro
• Jan. 10, 2008, Daily Centro Update
• Jan. 9, 2008, UBS Cuts Stake in Centro
• Jan. 3, 2008, Centro: Morgan Stanley, Westfield Have Approached Firm
• Jan. 2, 2008, Centro Says Its Getting Offers
• Dec. 18, 2007, Another Round of Centro Coverage
• Dec. 17, 2007, Centro Hit by Credit Crunch
• May, 10, 2007, Centro’s Structure
• Feb. 28, 2007, Centro To Buy New Plan

Blockbuster will bring new in-store kiosks into some of its stores that enable lightning-quick downloads of movies. This is an example of the kind of strategies retailers are looking into to take advantage of space they may already control but no longer need as straight selling space. For Blockbuster, this also represents another attempt at trying to retain market share in the highly competitive home video market now that it’s facing increased competition from mail DVD services and video on demand.

The sleek prototype kiosk unveiled Wednesday is just one way that Blockbuster is looking to deliver movies digitally. The design, which Keyes said is likely to change with testing, offers a range of features to help customers make movie choices, including previews and recommendations. Keyes said the company is working to reduce the download time for movies to about 30 seconds.

The company is also working on allowing customers to download movies through set-top boxes or Internet Protocol television, or IPTV.

The kiosk prototype, which will begin testing within the next three weeks, was developed by NCR Corp. For the pilot launch, the kiosks will be compatible with an Archos portable device, but the company ultimately plans for the kiosk to be an “open system” and widely compatible with a range of devices.

The CEO noted that Blockbuster plans to rely on third-party partners to minimize the company’s investment in these initiatives.

This matches what we’ve been hearing a lot lately. Grocery stores, discounters and warehouse clubs are cleaning up in the current economic environment as consumers continue to be extremely price-conscious.

Costco Wholesale Corp. reported a 32 per cent jump in third-quarter profits Thursday to top Wall Street expectations, as cash-squeezed customers flocked to its warehouse clubs in search of bargains on food and toiletries.

Costco reported net income rose to $295.1-million (U.S.), or 67 cents per share, from $224-million, or 49 cents per share, a year ago, which included a $30.3-million charge.

Sales increased 13 per cent to $16.26-billion from $14.34-billion in a year-ago period hurt by a $228.2-million boost in sales returns reserves. Including membership fees, revenue rose to $16.61-billion from $14.66-billion.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had expected profit of 65 cents per share on revenue of $16.35-billion.

Link.

Linens ‘n Things may be closing more stores than they originally thought. Meanwhile, there’s good news from Gap Inc., which boosted its first-quarter profit by 40 percent by managing inventory and cutting costs.

Back from some downtime after last week’s big show in Las Vegas, here’s a roundup of some news, notes and commentary.

• Marketwatch, Realtors, architects: commercial real estate weaker
• Seeking Alpha, Retail Commercial Real Estate Declines, Discounters Faring Better - Housing Tracker
• Costar, Outlet Centers Outperforming the Shopping Center Industry
• Newsday, Feldman Mall loses $5 million in first quarter
• International Herald Tribune, Investor group makes bid for Hypo Real Estate stake worth up to €1.1 billion
• Dallas Morning News, Staubach Co. may be in merger talks
• Dallas Morning News, U.S. luxury department stores being drawn overseas
• Dow Jones, JPMorgan Asset Management Raises US$600 Million For China Real Estate Fund

For months, a yawning gap between buyers’ and sellers’ expectations combined with a drop in available financing for highly-leveraged buyers has led to a massive drop in investment sales volume on retail real estate properties. In early months of this year, year-over-year volume dropped by as much as 85 percent.

Many in the industry had been looking to ICSC’s RECon as possibly easing that impasse. The logic? With more than 40,000 pros getting a chance to sit face-to-face for the first time since the credit crisis broke, perhaps buyers and sellers would come to a better understanding of fair valuations. But based on the sorts of conversations and dealmaking occurring, it doesn’t seem that the convention will ultimately serve as that panacea. Anecdotally, full service brokerage firms like CBRE and Jones Lang LaSalle are reporting that while leasing activity remained robust at the conference, there wasn’t nearly as much activity on the investment side. more

Here’s just a taste of some of the interesting commentary the Retail Traffic staff heard on the floor of ICSC’s RECon show.

“With the way the economy is going right now, I’ve noticed retailers are more aggressive about negotiating their exit strategies,” says an attorney with Cox Castle Nicholson, a Los Angeles-based commercial real estate law firm. “They don’t want to get stuck if the economy continues to slide. In that case, something that’s a good compromise situation for the landlord is if a retailer has sales below a specific amount for a given period of time, then the retailer can get out of the lease. They can’t just leave their space without good cause.”… “Most retailers are now looking at that bottom 5 percent to 7 percent of their real estate portfolio to see if they can [cut costs],” says Al Williams, of Excess Space Retail Services, Inc., a Lake Success, N.Y.-based consulting firm. “Wall Street is not going to look down on that right now, so they think it’s a good time.”… Retail developers in search of replacement tenants can now turn to Creme de la Creme, Inc., a Greenwood Village, Colo.-based developer and operator of early childhood development centers. The firm is currently looking for out parcel sites at high-end lifestyle centers in the suburbs of major cities. Most of its buildings measure approximately 21,000 square feet. “We are attracting 600 people to the center every day, twice a day,” says Bruce T. Karpas, Creme de la Creme’s president and CEO. “Plus, we are not looking to be right in the middle of the property, so we are not taking away the land a retailer would want.” The company, which operates 20 centers at present, will open three additional properties in 2008, followed by eight to 10 centers in 2010….Glimcher Ventures Southwest, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based developer, is rolling out a new concept called “The Boulevard,” which will combine retail offerings with a wide mix of restaurants and entertainment venues in an open-air, pedestrian-friendly setting. The first of the projects, a 250,000 square foot center in Surprise Point, Ariz. scheduled for completion later this year, will be followed by three similar developments in the Phoenix area and, eventually, locations in California, Nevada and New Mexico. David J. Glimcher describes the concept as a “Disneyesque experience.” more

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Spotted over at That Mall’s Sick and That Store’s Dead!

Standard & Poor’s announced the February results of its S&P/GRA Commercial Real Estate Indices. Retail was up 0.8 percent from January to February while every other property type dropped.

The latest readings:

Previous posts on the S&P/GRA Indices can be found from April 22, March 18, January 22, January 2, November 28, September 18 and August 21.