Mergers & Acquisitions

Bolinbrook, Ill. – Ulta Beauty will open 12 new stores in DDR shopping centers by year-end 2013.

The stores will open in DDR shopping centers in the towns of Salisbury, Md., Charlotte, N.C., Richmond, Va., Cleveland/Akron, Ohio, Toledo, Ohio, Hartford, Conn., Salt Lake City, Denver, St. Louis, and Lansing, Mich. Year-to-date, Ulta and DDR have opened six new stores, and are scheduled to open an additional six stores prior to year-end, bringing Ulta's total store count to 43 locations across DDR's portfolio.

Evergreen Park, Ill. — Cole Real Estate Investments has acquired a 49,225-sq.-ft. portion of the 450,000-sq.-ft. Evergreen Marketplace in Evergreen Park, Ill., for $9.9 million. Mid-America Real Estate Corporation represented the seller, Sterling Bay Companies.

The center is located just north of the northwest corner of Western Avenue & 95th Street in the near Chicago suburb of Evergreen Park. Meijer, Menards, Michaels and Ross Dress for Less. Cole purchased the portion featuring Michaels and Ross.

Greenwood Village, Colo. — Maui Wowi Hawaiian plans to open a shop in Northwoods Mall in Peoria, Ill. Slated to open in early October, the new Maui Wowi franchise shop will continue the brand’s expansion in Illinois.

Maui Wowi currently has more than 450 operating units in seven countries.

Benicia, Calif. – Cycle Gear, Inc. has opened its first Indiana store on East 82nd Street in Indianapolis, near the Castleton Square Mall.

Cycle Gear will host a grand opening celebration weekend Sept. 20-22. Indianapolis is the latest in a recent run of store openings in the Midwest for Cycle Gear. The retailer, with more than 100 locations in 30 states, opened two stores in the Chicago area and one near Milwaukee earlier in the year.

New York -- Steven Roth, chairman and CEO of Vornado Realty Trust, resigned from the board of J.C. Penney as company plans to sell its stake in the chain.

In a filing on Friday, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Vornado said it will exit Penney in the “not-too-distant future. The company owns about 6.1% of Penney’s shares.

As the winter season approaches, Burlington Coat Factory experienced overall sales growth that led to a comparative store sales increase of 7.8% for the second quarter ended Aug. 3.

Total net sales increased 11.5% to $963.7 million for the months quarter compared with last year.

“We are proud of our second quarter results including 11.5% overall sales growth and, most important, our 7.8% comparative store sales increase. I would like to thank our store and corporate teams for contributing to these results,” said Tom Kingsbury, president and CEO. 

San Francisco – Twitter publicly announced its intention to file for an IPO with a tweet yesterday afternoon.

“We’ve confidentially submitted an S-1 to the SEC for a planned IPO,” stated the tweet. “This Tweet does not constitute an offer of any securities for sale.”

Boston — A group of private equity companies, including Advent International and CDIB Capital, have joined together to acquire a significant equity position in International Coffee & Tea, which owns and operates stores under The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf banner, with an eye on expanding in Asia. Other investors participating in the transaction include Mirae Asset Private Equity and the Sassoon family (the latter is the largest existing shareholder of The Coffee Bean, and is remaining as a substantial shareholder).