Corporate Governance

Seattle – Amazon.com is always trying to improve its overseas operations, and now the e-commerce titan is “getting the picture” in the U.K. market. According to TechCrunch, Amazon has opened a 46,000-sq.-ft. photography studio in London.

Oak Brook, Ill. – Retail Properties of America Inc. (RPAI) has named Heath R. Fear as its new CFO and treasurer, effective Aug. 17. Fear will play a key role in the continued execution of the company’s portfolio and balance sheet strategy, in addition to oversight of all of financial activities, including capital markets, accounting, investor relations, internal audit, internal reporting and treasury.

Houston - Transwestern represented Mod Pizza in five leases totaling approximately 13,662 sq. ft. in the Houston market. Grant Walker, VP, and Chris Reyes, broker associate, who serve as exclusive advisors for Mod Pizza in the Houston market, represented the retailer in the transactions.

Mod will be operating more than 100 stores across the U.S. by the end of 2015 and has plans to open more than 30 additional locations in Houston within the next four to five years.

Mod Pizza’s newest Houston locations include:

Though it’s been months since the West Coast port disputes were in the headlines, retailers are still struggling to return inventory levels back to normal after the incident and an abnormally long, cold winter resulted in serious supply chain and inventory disruptions.

San Francisco - Gap Inc. is supporting front-end omnichannel retail operations with back-end seamless inventory capabilities. Using a “seamless inventory” model supported by technology from GT Nexus, Gap focuses on having the right products at the right time for the right channel.

Seattle – Everyone from mass merchandisers to dollar stores has been getting into the grocery business in recent years, and the vertical may soon have a new and very large participant.

Minneapolis – Target Corp. is reportedly planning to expand upon existing solar plans for its North Carolina store base. According to the Charlotte Business Journal, Target has added eight stores to the existing 19 stores in the state it plans to equip with rooftop solar panels.

Atlanta – The addition of income from Progressive Holdings LLC, as well as the elimination of expenses related to the April 2014 purchase of Progressive, propelled strong profit growth at Aaron’s Inc. The rent-to-own retailer reported net earnings of $40.5 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2015, almost five times the $8.5 million earnings reported the same quarter a year earlier.

Seattle – Last month Facebook overtook Wal-Mart in valuation, and now another digital giant has reportedly achieved the same feat. According to the Associated Press, after intense after-hours trading, which followed Amazon’s rare report of a second quarter fiscal 2015 profit, Amazon now has market capitalization of about $264 billion.

Seattle - Starbucks Corp. is looking to increase its corporate ownership stake. The retailer has authorized the repurchase of an additional 50 million shares of the company's common stock under its ongoing share repurchase program.

This authorization has no expiration date and is in addition to the 11 million shares that remained available for repurchase as of June 28, 2015 under an existing authorization.