Finance & Capital Management

Woodland Hills, Calif. -- LandMark Retail Group, a subsidiary of NewMark Merrill Cos., has partnered with Accubranch, a strategic planning and market research group that specializes in providing real estate advice to the regional banking industry.

CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa. — Ikea demonstrated the retail industry's commitment to the environment and sustainability by taking part in Climate Week, which is taking place in New York City this week. Ikea U.S. president Mike Ward was part of a 6-person sustainability panel held at 7 World Trade Center on Sept 19. Others on the panel included NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg and former British prime minister Tony Blair.

Dallas -- SRS Real Estate Partners said it has hired Andrew Cornwell as a research analyst in the Austin/San Antonio office.

Prior to this role, Cornwell was an intern for SRS where he focused on research while working closely with the investment sales team.

Chicago -- SoCore Energy has been chosen as the solar developer to assist Walgreens in completing one of the nation’s largest solar energy rollouts. Construction of the first 20 solar installations at Ohio-area Walgreens began earlier this month, at stores in Cincinnati.

SoCore Energy is under contract to provide 90 Ohio solar installations for Walgreens. The first 53 will be completed by Nov. 11, pushing Walgreens’ total number of solar sites to 136.

Walgreens will lease the arrays from SoCore for 10 years.

New York City -- Macy's is reducing the size of its store in downtown Pittsburgh from nine floors of retail space to six (plus a mezzanine).

The company has been moving some departments to lower floors since early this year. The store will remain open during the renovations.

"The store is being reconfigured for better flow among departments, making shopping easier and more convenient," the company said in a statement.

The Network of Executive Women held its 10th annual leadership summit earlier this week in Orlando, and Walmart’s International CFO Cathy Smith was listed as a featured speaker. Nothing unusual about that, but what made Smith’s appearance unique is that rather than read a canned speech written by someone else, she engaged in a candid conversation with Jan Hill, founder of Hill Enterprises.

Seattle -- Nordstorm plans to open a Nordstrom Rack in Manchester, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis.
 
The new 35,000-sq.-ft. store is scheduled to open in fall 2012. Construction of the store will begin immediately, according to Mark Sedgwick, managing director of St. Louis-based Pace Properties, L.L.C., which will develop and own the building where Nordstrom Rack will be located.
 

NEW YORK — Walmart took the next step in its goal to help build women's economic empowerment by announcing the launch of a dedicated page on Walmart.com that will feature an assortment of products created by women in nearly two dozen countries, including women who work in cooperatives and own small businesses. The site, which the company expects to be available in spring 2012, will feature such products as jewelry from Guatemala, Thailand and Ethiopia; coffee from Central and South America; and dresses from Kenya.