Corporate Governance

New Orleans -- Stirling Properties has completed the development financing and will soon launch construction on the Offices at Mid-City Market, a 54,000-sq.-ft., mixed-use complex in the Mid-City neighborhood of New Orleans.

The Offices at Mid-City Market will feature approximately 31,000 sq. ft. of office space along with 9,000 sq. ft. of retail and restaurant space. The building design will include parking, additional green space and water management. Prior to closing the construction loan, the building was nearly 50% pre-leased.

Christopher & Banks Corp. has named a former Macy's executive to its board of directors.

Sears has teamed up with organizers of a next-generation athletic event that involves slogging through mud to promote its best-selling Kenmore brand in stores, online and via social media.

The Kenmore brand announced that for the second consecutive year, it will be the official household appliance sponsor of the Dity Girl Mud Run, the original women-only national 5K obstacle and race event.

Best Buy has announced that it is shutting down its Future Shop stores in Canada, consolidating under the Best Buy name and spending $200 million on its e-commerce capabilities.

Best Buy says it will convert 65 of the Future Shop locations into Best Buy stores within a week, and 66 others are closing immediately. Best Buy acquired Canada's Future Shop chain in 2001 for C$581 million.

Burnaby, Canada -- Canada’s Future Shop will soon be a thing of the past. Best Buy announced it is consolidating its Future Shop division, and the chain’s namesake stores and Future Shop stores will all operate under the Best Buy nameplate. As part of the consolidation, 66 Future Shop stores will be closed, effective March 30. Also, 65 Future Shop locations will be shuttered for one week to transition to Best Buy.

Herzogenerauch, Germany - Employing 45 profit protection managers and using three different POS systems across 11 global markets, Germany-based vertical athletic apparel/footwear retailer Adidas does not have an easy time managing loss prevention. But as demonstrated in a presentation at the recent Oracle Industry Connect 2015 conference, Adidas is simplifying loss prevention with the use of the Micros XBR loss prevention solution.

New York -- The Home Depot Inc. has appointed former Time Warner and Visa executive Jamil Farshchi to the new position of chief information security officer (CISO), the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported. The move comes months after the home improvement retailer said its payment systems were breached at some 2,200 U.S. and Canadian stores.

Retailers have long known the value of collecting and using customer information for internal analytics and marketing. Indeed, for decades, retailers such as grocery and drug stores have benefited from the vast amount of data generated by customers using their loyalty discount cards to save on their food, toiletry and related purchases. With advancements in technology, retailers now have access to more information than ever about their customers, not only from their own collection practices, but from third parties as well.