Strategy

York, Pa. -- The Bon-Ton Stores  announced it will close its Bon-Ton store in the Clearview Mall in Butler, Pennsylvania, and its Elder-Beerman store in the Raleigh Mall in Beckley, West Virginia.

The company will not renew these leases, which terminate January 31, 2015. The stores will close at the end of the leases.

Holiday sales are projected to grow at their fastest level in years, rising 4.1% to nearly $617 billion after a 3.1% increase last year, according to an annual forecast released by the National Retail Federation.

Bon-Ton plans to close its Bon-Ton store in the Clearview Mall in Butler, Pennsylvania, and its Elder-Beerman store in the Raleigh Mall in Beckley, West Virginia. The company will not renew these leases, which terminate Jan. 31, 2015.

The closings will affect approximately 38 and 39 store employees at the Clearview Mall and Raleigh Mall locations, respectively.

Grapevine, Texas -- Grapevine Mills, the largest outlet and value retail shopping destination in North Texas, welcomed Torrid to its retail line-up of more than 180 stores, and will soon enhance its selection when Steve Madden opens in October.  

Burlington, N.J. - Affiliates of Bain Capital Partners LLC and certain other stockholders of Burlington Stores Inc. intend to offer eight million shares of the company’s common stock in an underwritten public offering. The offering consists entirely of secondary shares to be sold by the selling stockholders.

Burlington Stores will not sell any shares in the offering and will not receive any proceeds from the offering. J.P. Morgan is acting as sole book-running manager for the offering.

Minneapolis - Christopher & Banks Corp. is cutting its sales forecast for the third quarter of fiscal 2014, based on sales trends to date for the quarter. The company believes sales have been negatively impacted by continued softness in mall traffic and lower than expected sales from its September fashion show, as the demand for fashion merchandise exceeded planned inventory levels, as well as due to late receipts associated with the West Coast port disruptions.

PepsiCo has appointed Tony West EVP of government affairs, general counsel and corporate secretary, effective Nov. 24. He succeeds Larry Thompson, who is retiring after almost a decade of service.

New York - Brixmor Property Group, owner and operator of the largest wholly-owned portfolio of grocery-anchored shopping centers in the U.S., has named Christopher Ralph as VP leasing and will be based in Orlando, Florida. In this role, Ralph will oversee the leasing at Brixmor’s 58 community and neighborhood centers in Florida, which collectively total nine million-sq.-ft..