Corporate Governance

Godiva has opened its first in-store cafe in the United States, in Manhattan's Rockefeller Center.

The newly renovated store features a seating area where customers can enjoy a new collection of French-style desserts or Godiva’s signature chocolates, along with beverages. Godiva first introduced its cafe concept in London, where it operates a 40-table cafe on the second floor of the famous Harrods department store.  

Wages

Formed just three years ago, an aggressive acquirers of grocery-anchored centers has purchased its 34th property.   New Market Properties, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Preferred Apartment Communities, has acquired Irmo Station, a Kroger-anchored center in Columbia, South Carolina. The company targets high-yield suburban markets in Texas and the mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions and market-leading grocery anchors such as Publix, Kroger, and HEB.  

The willow is associated with weeping, and the appearance of WillowTree Plaza in Cookeville, Tennessee, is certainly sad by modern standards. But now the center near Tennessee Tech University has a new owner and, soon, will get a new look.   Boca Raton-based Fimiani Partners has purchased the 110,000-sq.-ft. center for $4.2 million and plans to invest in a new roof, a repaved parking lot, and a new paint job for Willow Tree.  

While many other retailers are bumping along the bottom in terms of growth, Amazon increased its sales line (in its second quarter) by almost a quarter.  In real terms, this means the online behemoth took some $7.5 billion more in revenue this quarter than during the same period last year. By any standards, this is an impressive performance -- but it is doubly so for a company of the size and scale of Amazon.  

Nest, a leading consultative advisor and technology provider specializing in multi-facility maintenance and construction services, announced the promotion of James Porreca to director of estimating and construction.    Due to recent growth and client demands, Nest made the commitment to add a new division to the company that will help serve their clients’ needs in a more enhanced way.  

Macy's and Sears are by no means the only department store companies with valuable real estate.    Activist investor Snow Capital Partners has built a position in Dillard's Inc. and is planning to push for changes at the retailer, including unlocking the value of its real estate portfolio, Bloomberg reported.  

Finally, an experiential retail breakthrough for the guys!   The 3 million-sq.-ft. Global Harbor Mall in Shanghai, one of Asia’s largest, has installed “husband pods” to keep men occupied while their wives or other domestic partners shop.   Each pod is padded out with a comfortable gaming chair, state of the art monitors, computer, and gamepad where the retail-weary can while away an hour playing vintage games from the Nineties.   

A jump in mobile ads and daily users contributed to another strong quarter for Facebook — one that also beat analyst expectations. For the second quarter ended June 30, total revenue rose 45% to $9.32 billion. This is a significant jump from $6.436 billion for the same period in 2016. Revenues for the quarter also beat analyst forecasts of $9.20 billion, according to Thomson Reuters. This is the ninth straight quarter that Facebook has exceeded analyst expectations.

Despite a drop in profits and same-store sales, Whole Foods Market still managed to surpass analyst predictions for the third quarter.   Net income for the quarter, ended July 2, net income fell to $106 million, or 33 cents per shares, from $120 million, or 37 cents a share, a year ago. This beat analyst expectations of 33 cents expected, according to Thomson Reuters.