Finance & Capital Management

Jupiter, Fla. — Burger & Beer Joint has announced plans for an expansion of 50 stores through franchised and corporate units over the next few years. The expansion is already well underway.

The company recently opened a third store in South Florida and has signed a 10-store franchise agreement to open stores throughout Florida and Georgia.

Los Angeles -- Sport Chalet has engaged Cappello Capital Corp. as its exclusive financial advisor to assist in exploring a range of options including strategic partners, investors, alliances and joint ventures.

Los Angeles — CBRE Group has appointed Chris Ludeman global president of Capital Markets.

Ludeman will oversee the global growth and integration of CBRE’s Capital Markets Service business line, which includes Investment Sales, Debt & Structure Finance and Capital Advisors activities worldwide, working with CBRE’s Capital Markets leaders around he world.

A 33-year veteran of CBRE, Ludeman most recently served as president of the Capital Markets business in the Americas.

East Moriches, N.Y. -- Solutions Management, a leading national retail and corporate maintenance company, announced the appointment of Michael DiTaranto as its new senior operations manager.

New York -- Shaky consumer confidence and increased efficiencies among retailers may put a damper on retailers’ holiday hiring plans, according to global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

In its annual holiday hiring forecast, Challenger estimated that seasonal job gains will not see a significant decline from last year’s robust numbers, but they are likely to at best match the level of hiring that occurred in October, November, and December 2012.

Minneapolis – Target Corp. reportedly plans to hire 70,000 seasonal workers for the upcoming holiday season, about 20% less than the 88,000 seasonal workers it hired for last year’s holiday season.

According to the Associated Press, Target wants to give full-time employees more opportunity to take on extra holiday hours. The retailer also wants to better anticipate and schedule for fluctuations in holiday traffic. About one-third of seasonal employees brought on last year obtained full-time jobs at Target.

Charlotte, N.C. — Fiesta Restaurant Group has selected the AMTdirect software platform to manage its portfolio of more than 300 company-owned and franchised locations in the U.S. and Latin America.

AMTdirect’s integrated platform will streamline processes, consolidate real estate data across the business and provide Fiesta with a 360-degree view of its entire portfolio.

Norton, Va. — Rivercrest Realty Associates has acquired the 81,297-sq.-ft. Norton Commons shopping center in Norton, Va., for $6,910,000.

Divaris Real Estate represented the seller, General Electric Credit Equities, in the transaction. At the time of the sale, the center, anchored by Burke’s Outlet, was 98% occupied.