Finance & Capital Management

Amazon.com is going big in Texas with the announcement of the construction of yet another fulfillment center in Dallas. 

The new 500,000 square-foot facility, which is currently under construction, will be located at the northeast corner of Interstate 45 and Interstate 20 in Dallas and will bring about 500 new jobs to the area when the facility opens early in 2016.

Employees at the Dallas fulfillment center will process smaller items, such as books, electronics and consumer goods, Amazon said Tuesday.

Toronto - Sears Canada Inc. has closed a transaction to sell and leaseback three properties to Concord Pacific Group of Companies. The transaction, originally announced on March 11, 2015, has closed for total proceeds of $140 million.

Hoffman Estates, Ill. – Sears Holding Group Inc. has filed a $1.57 billion subscription rights offering with the SEC for its real estate investment trust (REIT) known as Seritage Growth Properties. The offering would give Sears shareholders the right to buy up to 53.3 million shares of the REIT at a share price of $29.58.

Seritage also plans to sell 9.5 million class C non-voting shares to Fairholme Capital Management LLC, Sears’ second-largest shareholder, at the same price. This would give Fairholme a roughly 12% stake in Seritage.

Photo: Fred Morganthall has been named senior VP of retail divisions for The Kroger Co.

Crate & Barrel is joining Toys"R"Us and other retailers shutting down Manhattan flagship locations due to skyrocketing rent prices.

There has been a great deal written about omnichannel’s impact on the store, multichannel shopping behaviors and cross-channel fulfillment. What seems to have gone unreported, however, is the tremendous impact labor costs can have on profitably delivering the omnichannel shopping experiences consumers now demand.  

The retail industry is accustomed to weak same store sales at Sears and Kmart, but the magnitude of the decline the company experienced in the first quarter was large even by its standards.

Hoffman Estates, Ill. – A reduction in selling, general and administrative expenses helped Sears Holdings Corp. reduce its first quarter net loss even as its sales continued to slide. The results came in as the chain prepares for the launch of its real-estate investment trust this week to raise cash. Sears said it expects the REIT transaction to raise $2.6 billion.