Marketing

Casto has been successful building shopping centers in Ohio for 70 years because it’s not afraid to shift with the times, Don M. Casto III said in yesterday’s edition of the Columbus Dispatch.   The company has increasingly joined forces with other developers on mixed-use projects and turned back to its roots of building residences and retail buildings in downtown Columbus, the paper reported.   

Kenneth Marshall, a 25-year veteran of the retail real estate industry, has joined Olshan Properties as head of retail. For the last two years, he was VP of development at WP Glimcher.   Marshall began his career in 1991 with Urban Retail Properties and worked there for 12 years, rising to VP of development. He did stints at Westfield, Colonial Properties Trust, and Mid-America before joining Glimcher.  

Jason LaRose has been named Under Armour’s president, North America.    LaRose succeeds Matthew Mirchin, who will transition to the role of strategic advisor, global rrevenue, effective Oct. 1.    The two men will continue to closely work together to “accelerate our footprint in North America,” Kevin Plank, founder and CEO of Under Armour said in a statement.  

Saks Fifth Avenues’ value-luxury brand opened its fourth Virginia outlet this week in Springfield, just outside of Alexandria.   The new store occupies a 30,000-sq.-ft. space on two levels in the PREIT-owned Springfield Town Center, its first mall location in the Washington, D.C., area.   

Photo: Brian Cornell
  Target Corp. CEO Brian Cornell made a rousing appeal to the chain’s associates at the company’s annual fall meeting.   "We have 137 days in front of us to turn this into a winning year, to start that second-half rally," he said, the Star Tribune reported.      

A first-of-its kind arrangement has saved Aeropostale.    A consortium made up of Authentic Brands Group (ABG) and two of the nation’s largest real estate companies — General Growth Properties and Simon Property Group — announced it has finalized the acquisition of the teen apparel retailer. It is the first time that mall operators have participated in a deal to acquire a retail chain.  

Dollar General announced a major hiring initiative to support its continued expansion.   The discounter said that within the next month it intends to hire 10,000 new employees to support planned store openings and fill current vacancies. The chain will hold approximately 600 localized hiring events through September. It is looking to hire both full-time and part-time positions, including store managers, assistant store managers, lead sales associates and store associates.