Finance & Capital Management

Warm weather was a problem for most retailers in the fourth quarter, but Houston-based Stage Stores also got hit by weakness in the energy sector and the Mexican Peso.

The discounter plans to invest some $1.8 billion in 2016 on capital projects, with the majority going to e-commerce and supply chain improvements, as well as in-store improvements. And starting in 2017, Target will ramp up its tech spending even more, Fortune reported. [Fortune]

A&G Realty Partners has been retained by The Sports Authority to manage the sale of retail store leases and assist in reducing the retailer’s occupancy costs following its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

A&G Realty is currently accepting bids on the leases, which range from 10,000 to 75,000 sq. ft. and are located in many of the major retail markets in the country including prestigious locations in California, Florida, Puerto Rico and Texas.  The auction will take place in mid-April.

Ross Dress for Less announced three new stores, part of the retailer’s 2016 expansion program, which calls for 70 new locations.

Ross will open a new store and relocate a store in Mobile, Alabama on March 5. The new 25,000-sq.-ft. West Mobile store is located in Westwood Plaza, one mile east of the Mobile Regional Airport. The Mobile location is a 25,000-sq-ft. store that relocated into the McGowin Park East Shopping Center at the southeast corner of Interstate 65 and Highway 90.

Super Tuesday shed a very strong light on what the general election campaign is going to look like as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump performed well and solidified their frontrunner status.

More importantly, it was essentially a validation of Donald Trump's campaign style and strategy so far. Whether you are a fan of The Donald or not, it is clear that part of that strategy has been focusing on social issues like immigration, race and other political hot potatoes and pushing issues important to Main Street merchants to the back burner.

New York -- Halstead Property announced the promotion of Richard J. Grossman to president. In his new role, Grossman will work closely with Halstead CEO Diane M. Ramirez and will also continue to oversee the Village and SoHo offices together with Sara Rotter, executive director of sales for Downtown.

Barnes & Noble produced a same-store sales increase in its third quarter which, although meager, is an impressive accomplishment given intense competition from Amazon.

Sales for the company’s third quarter ended Jan. 30 declined 1.8% to $1.4 billion, due to lower online sales and some store closure. Same-store sales increased 0.2% and if the company NOOK products are excluded the comp increase was 1.3%.