Mergers & Acquisitions

Boston -- Gordon Brothers Group announced the appointment of John Dattilo as director, real estate of the commercial & industrial division, to the Chicago office. Dattilo will oversee the analysis, acquisition and sale of industrial real estate assets.

Phoenix – Vestar announced the addition of Bradley Parks, director of due diligence to its team. Parks will be responsible for overseeing all due diligence activities for Vestar’s shopping center acquisition opportunities.

Over the past three years Vestar has completed over $1 billion in acquisitions throughout the western U.S. and was recently recognized as the 4th largest acquirer of shopping centers in the United States.

Plymouth Meeting, Pa. -- Metro Commercial Real Estate announced it has negotiated 10 new store openings for The Vitamin Shoppe in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

The Vitamin Shoppe, is a leading multichannel specialty retailer and contract manufacturer of nutritional products with 700+ stores throughout the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada.

The Vitamin Shoppe Pennsylvania locations: Chadds Ford, Fairless Hills, Feasterville, Lancaster, Paoli, Philadelphia, Dickson City/Scranton and Wilkes-Barre.

Walmart said it will close 269 stores worldwide this year, including many of its smallest-format stores, in a move that CEO Doug McMillon characterized as being more disciplined about growth. It is one of the largest number of stores closures that Walmart has ever announced at one time.

Amazon is on track to acquire the 75% of the French package-delivery company Colis Privé that it doesn’t already own during the first quartet, according to the Seattle Times. Some analysts believe it’s only the beginning of a move by the Internet giant to eventually launch a package-delivery service that will one day compete with UPS, FedEx and others. [Seattle Times]

The downsizing continues at Sears Holding Corp.

The troubled retailer is closing what it described as a “very small percentage” of its overall number of Kmart and Sears stores across the country.

"Every year we evaluate our store portfolio and make changes based on leases or stores with poor performance," company spokesman Howard Riefs said in a Reuters report.

The exact number of stores to be shuttered has not been disclosed. But Reifs also said Kmart would account for the majority of the closures.

Brooklyn, N.Y. -- Forest City Realty Trust announced that it has closed the sale of 625 Fulton Street, a development site in Brooklyn, New York. The Rabsky Group purchased the property for $158 million, of which $100 million was paid at closing with the balance due in 90 days.

Newport Beach, Calif. -- X Team International announced that partner Strategic Retail Advisors negotiated the purchase of a 104,423-sq.-ft. property at La Habra Towne Centre located in La Habra, California, on behalf of Northgate Gonzalez Markets.

La Habra Town Centre is situated on 9.2 acres and is currently home to CVS, Petco and Jack in the Box. Nelson Wheeler and Blaine Bush of SRA represented Northgate Gonzalez Markets. Jones Lang LaSalle represented the seller.

Oak Brook, Ill. -- Mid-America Real Estate Corporation’s Investment Sales team recently brokered the sale of The Oaks of Oak Brook in Oak Brook, Illinois. Newport Capital Partners acquired the 67,143-sq. ft. property on behalf of Newport Fund II for $18.25 million.

The Oaks of Oak Brook is located at the northwest corner of Kingery Highway (Illinois Route 83) and 16th Street. The center features a tenant lineup including: Panera Bread, Athletico, Wells Fargo and Sleepy’s.

Shopping center companies will receive recognition for 2015 development, acquisition and third-party management activities, as Chain Store Age’s 27th annual “Fastest Growing” awards rank the most active shopping center owners, managers and acquirers for projects, contracts and transactions completed during last year.

The top placers will be featured in the May 2016 issue of Chain Store Age, which will be bonus-distributed to the International Council of Shopping Centers’ annual RECon event in Las Vegas.