by Elaine Misonzhnik April 1st, 2011
Apparel retailer Forever 21 opened one of its largest stores at Fashion Fair mall in Fresno, Calif. this week. The store will span three levels and 150,000 square feet, making it larger than even Forever 21’s Times Square location in New York City.
The retailer has been trying to increase its footprint in the past few years and wants to rebrand itself as a fashion department store. To that end, it’s been going after locations vacated by old-time department store chains such as Mervyn’s and Sears. The location at Fashion Fair, for example, formerly housed Gottschalks. The question is whether Forever 21 can draw enough shopper traffic to justify its drastically expanded stores? Let us know what you think.
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by Elaine Misonzhnik March 25th, 2011
Blockbuster revealed this week that it will reject 150 leases, in addition to the 220 it had already canceled, according to The Street. The company was previously facing threats of eviction from some of its landlords because it was late on rents. For additional news reports about retail and retail real estate, follow the links below:
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by Elaine Misonzhnik March 24th, 2011
The streak of private equity firms going after retailers continues, with Leonard Green & Partners signing a confidentiality agreement with BJ’s Wholesale Club, according to Supermarket News.
Private equity took a breather from the retail sector in 2009 and 2010, but there has been a definite pick-up in deal activity in recent months, including the contested buyout of J.Crew by a Leonard Green/Texas Pacific partnership and several restaurant chain buyouts.
As a buyout target, BJ’s has several things that might make it attractive to private equity players, including a focus on value and an established brand name. Its main weakness, according to analysts, is that it’s competing against two stronger players: Costco and Sam’s Club. That would give an experienced private equity owner something to work with in creating additional value for the chain. If the Leonard Green deal goes through, it would be interesting to see what the firm will do with BJ’s to help it gain market share.
Ironically, while private equity firms are taking a closer look at more and more retailers, a chain that perhaps needs a private partner the most, Barnes & Noble, is about to give up on its search for a buyer, Bloomberg reports.
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by Elaine Misonzhnik February 25th, 2011
In what seems to be an attempt to compete more effectively with the dollar stores, Target made two announcements about its plans for 2011. The first concerns its store opening plans. In 2010, the retailer slowed down its growth pace, preferring instead to concentrate on renovating existing units. This year, however, Target intends to double its number of store openings to 21, according to The Star Tribune.
Furthermore, it will continue to add grocery components to more and more locations, including 380 stores this year, according to Supermarket News. And it will begin testing a smaller store format intended to make it easier for the big box operator to grow into urban areas:
He said Target plans to open its first units of a new small urban format — called City Target — in 2012, woth pilot locations set for Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago. “If successful, this format will provide us more flexibility to operate in densely populated areas on sites that won’t accommodate our larger-store formats,” Steinhafel said.
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by Elaine Misonzhnik February 18th, 2011
It feels like in the past two days the entire retail real estate industry has been talking about one thing–Borders. The questions ranged from whether Borders will be able to survive long-term (many people don’t think so, judging by the discussion on Retail Wire), to how store closings will affect nearby retailers.
The biggest question of all, of course, is what’s going to happen with all that vacant space? Owners of centers where Borders serves as an anchor might be facing a significant drop in occupancy levels, according to a story in The Wall Street Journal:
The 4.9 million square feet of store closings will be especially painful for smaller shopping centers anchored by Borders’s superstores. Their average vacancy rate will more than double to 9.5% from 4.2%, according to commercial real estate researcher CoStar Group. That’s higher than the national average of 7.2%, the firm said.
But the outlook might not be as bad as many people fear. There are expanding retailers out there that might be happy to move into Borders stores in select markets. Growing electronics retailer hhgregg might be one. Discounter T.J. Maxx and apparel retailer Forever 21 might be others, according to our sources.
For now, the bankruptcy court judge has given Borders the green light to use $400 million in interim financing and the chain is set to remain in operation for some time. We’d be interested to hear your perspective on Borders’ ultimate fate. Do you think it’s a goner? Is there still a possibility that it will be acquired by Barnes & Noble? And is there still a future for brick-and-mortar bookstores in this country? Let us know what you think.
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by David Bodamer February 16th, 2011
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Top Walmart Exec Talks Turnaround Plans (Monday’s News & Notes)
by Elaine Misonzhnik March 21st, 2011
In the past few months, retailing giant Walmart has come under scrutiny for lackluster sales, with some experts claiming that its era of dominance in the U.S. market was over. Walmart is apparently aware of the problem and is taking steps to fix it. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Walmart’s William Simon talks about how he would like to make the retailer a one-stop-destination for shoppers as it was before. For more on retail and retail real estate, follow the links below:
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