Finance & Capital Management

Chattanooga, Tenn. — CBL & Associates Properties has announced future redevelopment and replacement plans for J.C. Penney anchor locations in the CBL portfolio that are expected to close this year.

J.C. Penney intends to close four locations in the CBL portfolio. They include stores at Hickory Point Mall in Forsyth, Ill., Janesville Mall in Janesville, Wis., Wausau Center in Wausau, Wis., and Northgate Mall in Chattanooga, Tenn. CBL anticipates the closures to occur in the second quarter of this year.

Pittsburgh - GNC Holdings, Inc. will deploy VeriFone’s newest NFC-enabled multimedia payment device at more than 3,100 of its U.S. retail locations. The payment device will position GNC for potential future endeavors such as EMV (Europay, Mastercard and Visa) payments and customer marketing at the POS.

St. Louis – Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc. reported declining year-over-year revenues for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2013 in a partial preliminary earnings release.

On a preliminary basis, Build-A-Bear reported total fourth quarter revenues of $107 million, down 9% from $118.2 million in the same period a year earlier. Preliminary fiscal year revenues were down slightly to $378 million from $380.2 million.

Best Buy’s defense of its market share proved costly during the holidays as greater-than-expected price cuts caused same-store sales to decline 0.9%, resulting in significant margin erosion and a vow to accelerate cost-cutting efforts in 2014.

Total sales for the nine-week period ended Jan. 4 declined slightly to $11.5 billion, with the domestic segment accounting for $9.75 billion of those sales. While domestic same store sales fell 0.9%, the company can take some comfort in the fact that its online comps increased 23.5%.

Minneapolis – Best Buy Co., Inc. saw its revenues for the nine-week holiday period ended Jan. 4, 2014 fall 2.5% from the same period a year earlier. Holiday revenues for the 2013 season were $11.45 billion, compared to $11.75 billion in the 2012 season.

Consolidated same-store sales only grew 0.1%, although online sales increased 23.5%. Best Buy cited a more intense than expected promotional pricing environment as a key factor in its disappointing holiday results.

Houston — Fuddruckers has opened its first Dominican Republic restaurant in Santo Domingo through a partnership with franchisee Eduardo J. Gadala-Maria and Giancarlo Bonarelli.

The 3,500-sq.-ft. unit opened in Galeria 360, one of several new shopping malls in the city. Galeria 360 features 120 stores and restaurants plus a large movie theater.

Hoffman Estates, Ill. – Sears Holdings has signed a sublease with Dick's Sporting Goods to occupy a portion of its second floor at the King of Prussia Mall in King of Prussia, Pa. The two-story anchor building will be renovated with Sears maintaining exterior entrances on both levels and the mall entrance on level one.  

Washington, D.C. – Despite economic challenges, the restaurant industry should experience its fifth consecutive year of sales growth in 2014. According to the National Restaurant Association (NRA) 2014 Restaurant Industry Forecast, industry sales are projected to exceed $683 billion in 2014, up 3.6% from 2013’s sales volume of $659.3 billion.