Mergers & Acquisitions

Philadelphia -- Century 21 Department Store is opening an approximately 95,000-sq.-ft. anchor store at The Gallery shopping center in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Oct. 28. This will be New York-based Century 21’s first location outside the New York market.   

Tampa, Fla. -- Northbrook, Illinois-based Pine Tree Commercial Realty, LLC announced that it has acquired South Pasadena Shopping Center, a grocery-anchored community shopping center located in South Pasadena (Tampa), Florida, for $21.1 million.    The recent acquisition is Pine Tree’s 73rd and brings the company’s current portfolio to 3.5 million sq. ft. in 15 states.  

New York -- The cat is finally out of the bag. Former J.C. Penney CEO and Apple retail head Ron Johnson confirmed that he is launching a new company—but it’s not a tech-gadget delivery service as was widely rumored. Instead,  the new initiative, set to launch in 2015,  is designed to help online hoppers make the right product choices.  

Atlanta –- Aaron’s Inc.reported that its third quarter income fell 55% to $9.3 million, from $21.1 million the same quarter the prior year, amid expenses related to store closings, corporate realignment, executive retirements, the resolution of a regulatory investigation and the purchase of Progressive Finance Holdings.    Revenues increased 32% to $707.6 million compared to $537.2 million, aided by the addition of Progressive revenue.  

Seattle -- The red ink got worse at Amazon in its third quarter as the Internet giant reported a net loss of $437 million in the third quarter, worse than analysts expected, compared with a net loss of $41 million in the year-ago period.  

Fraser, Mich. -- Mid-America Real Estate Corporation’s Investment Sales team recently brokered the sale of Fraser Shopping Center in Fraser, Mich. The 68,326-sq.-ft. center was purchased by a private investor represented by Sterling Heights, Michigan-based Showcase One Real Estate Group.  

Dallas -- Cypress Equities companies announced that its affiliated Cypress Acquisition Partners Retail Fund has closed on the acquisition of The Corner Shopping Center in Dallas. The project is a community shopping center, located on the northeast corner of Walnut Hill and the US-75 Central Expressway.   

St. Louis --Marcus & Millichap announced that Brett Chetek has rejoined the firm as senior director of the National Retail Group in the firm’s St. Louis office.

Scottsdale, Ariz. -- GE Capital’s Franchise Finance business announced its first financing for the Corner Bakery Café brand. It  comes in the form of a $5.6 million loan to Texas-based MX Restaurants and Bakeries, which already operates seven Corner Bakery restaurants in the Houston and South Texas markets. MX will use these funds to pay off short-term debt related to a recent acquisition and to develop four additional units.  

Sunnyvale, Calif. –- Strong mobile revenue and proceeds from the sale of a portion of its stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. helped Yahoo Inc. beat Wall Street estimates for earnings per share (EPS) and revenue in the third quarter of fiscal 2014. EPS totaled $0.52, up 62% from $0.32 the same quarter the prior fiscal year, and revenue grew 1% to $1.15 billion from $1.14 billion.