Finance & Capital Management

Toronto -- Slate Retail REIT announced that it has entered into a binding agreement to purchase Stonefield Square, a 90,991-sq.-ft. grocery-anchored shopping center located in Louisville, Kentucky, for $12.6 million ($138 per square foot). The property is anchored by The Fresh Market.

The acquisition is expected to be completed in fourth quarter 2014 and remains subject to customary closing conditions.

New York -- RadioShack Corp. has agreed to a financing packaging arranged by its biggest investor, hedge fund Standard General, that would help ease the retailer’s cash crunch as it heads into the holiday selling season, Bloomberg reported.

Walgreens had September sales of $6.5 billion, an increase of 9.4% as compared to the same month in fiscal 2014.
 
Total front-end sales increased 2.2% in September compared with the same month in fiscal 2014, while comparable store front-end sales increased 1.7%. Customer traffic in comparable stores decreased 2.7% while basket size increased 4.4%.
 

Dublin, Calif. -- Ross Dress for Less will open two new stores in Illinois on Oct. 11. The stores are located in Hickory Point Mall in Decatur and Times Square Mall in Mount Vernon.  

The new openings are part of the retailer’s 2014 expansion program, totaling approximately 75 new locations during the year.  

Together, Ross Dress for Less and dd’s Discounts currently operate over 1,300 off-price apparel and home fashion stores in 33 states, the District of Columbia and Guam.

Winston-Salem, N.C. -- Krispy Kreme Doughnuts announced CFO Douglas R. Muir intends to retire in calendar year 2015. The chain will conduct a comprehensive search to identify his successor. Muir is expected to remain in his current role until his successor is in place and to provide ongoing support during the transition.

Pasadena, Calif. - German software provider Nemetschek AG is acquiring Bluebeam Software Inc., a developer of PDF-based collaboration solutions for the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry, for $100 million. Both firms focus on enabling project teams to build better by digitizing project information.

Seattle -- Kitchenware retailer Sur La Table has appointed industry veteran Diane Neal as its new CEO. She succeeds Jack Schwefel, who has left the company to pursue other opportunities after serving as Sur La Table’s CEO since 2007.

Neal served as CEO and president of Bath & Body Works from 2007 to 2011. She currently serves on the boards of several retail companies, including Abercrombie & Fitch Co. and Fossil Group Inc. Neal also held leadership positions at Gap and Target.

Camp Hill, Pa. - For the four weeks ended Sept. 27, 2014, same store sales increased 5.1% from the prior-year period at Rite Aid Corp. September front-end same store sales increased 2.3%, while pharmacy same-store sales increased 6.3% and same-store prescription count grew 4.4%.

Total drugstore sales for the four-week period increased 4.5% to $2.02 billion, compared to $1.935 billion.