REAL ESTATE

Survival guide for stores in the Amazon Jungle
A recent Washington Post article pointed out that Anthropologie posted four straight quarters of flat or declining comparable sales and J. Crew saw comparable sales drop 10% in the last year. Banana Republic has seen a decline in comparable sales for the past 13 months, including a staggering 14% plunge in July. Weak sales numbers have also plagued Gap and Ann Taylor.
Four promoted at Mid-America
Four senior executive promotions have been announced by Mid-American Real Estate Corporation. Brian Adams, Greg Bayer, and Willie Hoag have all been named principals at the Oakbrook, Illinois-based company, a real estate services company that also operates in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Peter Scannell has been promoted to senior VP.

Makeup giant headed to the Big Apple

Move over Sephora, fast-growing Ulta Beauty is about to give you some competition. Ulta will open its first-ever outpost in Manhattan, on the city’s tony Upper East Side. The retailer leased a 12,000-sq.ft. space on the ground floor of 184 E. 86th St., Commercial Observer reported, with Cushman & Wakefield brokering the deal with Ulta. A Sephora is located on the same block.
Retail market is hot in this city

The City of Brotherly Love is having a love affair with retail. A new report from Philadelphia’s City Center District reveals that 45 national retailers have helped fuel a $1 billion investment in city real estate during the last five years.
Customers can shop, dine and drink at new Barnes & Noble concept

Barnes & Noble is set to open its third location featuring the bookseller’s new concept, which combines a bookstore with a full-service restaurant and table service. The new store, at the Palladio of Broadstone in Folsom, California, features a 2,600-sq.-ft. Barnes & Noble Kitchen that has seating for 140, reported the Sacramento Bee.
Owners asks for tax to spruce up center

A mall owner in Springfield, Missouri, has asked the town council to declare the area surrounding his site blighted and charge a tax to go towards improvements to his property. Curtis Jared told town administrators that sprucing up his Brentwood Shopping Center would create more jobs and tax revenue, according to local radio station KTTS. He wants them to form a community improvement district allowing a one-cent increase in the local sales tax.
Sears Hometown opens inside Heritage Ace Hardware

Among the retail strategies employed by Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores to turn around its business, the store-within-a-store concept might rank as the most inventive. Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores have been cropping up inside existing Ace locations around the country (and in some cases, built from the ground up as a combo store). The latest example of this is taking place in Santa Paula, California, inside the Heritage Ace Hardware located at 568 Suite C West Main Street.
SJP by Sarah Jessica Parker makes retail debut

The first standalone store dedicated to actress Sarah Jessica Parker’s branded collection of shoes and accessories.
Georgia town mulls ideas to aid failing centers

Town administrators in Newnan, Georgia, have proposed offering incentives to owners of local shopping centers to re-invigorate them. Municipal staff this week invited a group of community leaders to brainstorm about what could be done with the number of dilapidated centers in Newnan. Obstacles preventing owners from re-investing, the group said, included lack of cash flow, fear of selling due to capital gains taxes, and a reluctance to invest until neighboring properties improved.
Optimism abounds at New York Show

Retail real estate developers and management companies are coming away from this week’s New York Deal Making show more optimistic than they’ve been in years. “There’s some uncertainty following the election, but the stock market is up, the holiday’s been strong, and consumer confidence is high,” said CBL CEO Stephen Lebovitz at the International Council of Shopping Centers show, whose aisles were crammed with some 10,000 attendees.