Finance & Capital Management

Indianapolis – Simon  has broken ground on Tampa Premium Outlets in Wesley Chapel, Florida. Opening in October 2015, the multi-million dollar project will bring a diverse mix of more than 110 retailers with 441,000-sq.-ft. of leasable space. It will also include  a  a food pavilion with multiple dining options.  

Oakland, Calif. - Cost Plus World Market has renewed its use of the GT Nexus platform, providing real-time visibility into global inventory movement and performance information. Finance, sourcing and logistics departments are networked over a single cloud platform, connecting more than 1,000 suppliers and logistics providers to collaborate on production and delivery of goods.   

Cleveland – The Sherwin-Williams Co. is predicting healthy sales growth for this year and next year. For the full year 2014, the company expects consolidated net sales to increase approximately 9% compared to full year 2013.  

Atlanta - Hooters of America is partnering with Forum Analytics for a customized real estate planning and market-optimization solution. The collaboration will allow Hooters real estate operations make real-time, data-driven decisions by allowing users to share market data and sales forecasts, as well as impact estimates and site packet materials via SIMMS Online, Forum’s proprietary mapping, reporting and analytic platform.   

A $43.5 million fine has been levied against 10 Wall Street firms for doing what they were asked by Toys “R” Us as the retailer prepared an ill-fated public stock offering in 2010.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) levied the $43.5 million fine against the 10 investment banks – but not Toys “R” Us – for allowing their equity research analysts to solicit investment banking business and offer favorable research coverage in connection with the retailer’s planned IPO in 2010.

A sharper focus on merchandising and marketing netted positive results for Gymboree, as the company reported an increase in same store sales for the third quarter.

But the company did report a steep loss of $522.1 million, compared with a loss of $24 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2013. Same store sales increased 1%. Net sales were $316.8 million, compared with $309.8 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2013.

Chief Information Security Officers (CISO) have become more common on companies’ senior leadership teams. They might be in even higher demand after the highly publicized data breaches at Target, Home Depot, Neiman Marcus and other companies in the past couple of years (see a timeline of data breaches in the past decade here). In fact, Neiman Marcus just hired its first CISO, Sarah Hendrickson.

On the heels of announcing a new partnership with Lowe's and HGTV, Sherwin-Williams Co. is predicting healthy sales growth for this year and next year. For the full year 2014, the company expects consolidated net sales to increase approximately 9% compared with full year 2013.

Los Angeles - CBRE Group, Inc. has launched a new global brand positioning along with a platform to express the positioning inside and outside the company, Build on Advantage.   “With our new positioning, we have created an organizing principle for the brand that supports our core strategy of producing distinct advantages for all of our stakeholders, and have united our professionals around this aspiration,” said Bob Sulentic, CBRE’s president and CEO.  

Covington, Louisiana - Stirling Properties has named Michael Bucher as Development Director, charged with leading new and on-going development projects, including ground-up development, redevelopment and joint ventures.     Based in the Covington office, Bucher will plan, coordinate and direct personnel relating to development and redevelopment.