Finance & Capital Management

New York City -- The International Council of Shopping Centers said it expects holiday sales to increase 3% this year, which is below the 4.1% gain in 2010.

Holiday sales are expected to reach $250.2 billion, the highest since the 2007 peak, when spending totaled $251.7 billion, according to the group, whose forecast is among the first to come out for the holiday 2011 shopping season.

The ICSC predicted that holiday same-store sales will rise 3.5%, slightly lower than the 3.8% pace in 2010.

Los Angeles -- The union representing many of the 62,000 workers at Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons supermarkets in Southern California has issued a required 72-hour notice of its plan to cancel its extended contract, Reuters reported. The move that could pave the way for a strike.

NEW YORK — Tiffany & Co. said Thursday it plans to open a store in New York’s SoHo neighborhood in September 2012.

The 7,000-sq.-ft. store will occupy a space that combines two locations -- 97 Greene Street and 106 Wooster Street. 

The 2012 opening corresponds to Tiffany’s 175th anniversary of its founding on Lower Broadway in the 1850s.

New York City -- Costco Wholesale Corp won a federal appeals court decision that blocks women who accused the company of gender bias from suing as a group. Although the ruling overturns a judge’s decision to expand a suit filed by three women to include hundreds of female workers, the court left open the possibility that the case could again be brought as a class action.

New York City -- Barnes & Noble has bought some of Borders Group’s intellectual property along with other bidders, Crain’s New York reported.

According to Hilco Trading, the liquidation company handling the sale, multiple bidders, including Barnes & Noble, have agreed to buy $15.8 million of Borders' intellectual property, Craine’s said. The properties include a global portfolio of trademarks; Borders, Waldenbooks and Brentano's trade names; Internet domain names and the Borders.com e-commerce website.

Lenexa, Kan. -- Retail Group of America, owner of Strasburg Children stores, has announced the appointment of Joanna B. Shawver as VP real estate. She will lead the company’s real estate expansion strategy in the United States.

Shawver brings more than 20 years of commercial real estate experience to her new role, with specialties in tenant representation and shopping center leasing. Most recently, she was VP leasing with RED Development, a Kansas City and Phoenix-based real estate development firm.
 

WASHINGTON — A report released Thursday by Bloomberg said that U.S. consumer confidence held last week at the second-lowest level of 2011 as the highest number of households in three years said it was a bad time to spend. 

The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index was minus 49.3 in the period to Sept. 11, near the 2011 low of minus 49.4 reached in May. The buying climate gauge slumped to the lowest level since October 2008.

According to the report, the majority -- nine out of 10 -- of Americans polled had a negative view on the economy.

New York City -- The outsourcing of real estate and facilities management (REFM) activities is expected to expected to hold steady or increase, according to the inaugural KPMG 2011 global real estate and facilities management outsourcing pulse survey. Among the buyers of REFM services, 50% said they plan to increase outsourcing over the next one to two quarters. Longer term, over the next 12 months, 44% of buyers plan to increase their REFM outsourcing