Corporate Governance

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.

Saratoga, Calif. — Fuddruckers is expanding its footprint in Southern California through a new franchise development partnership with Keilah LLC.

The partnership will open ten new Fuddruckers over the next several years. The first is slated to debut by early 2015.

Melville, N.Y. — Mike Matlat has joined A&G Realty Partners as senior managing director in the Melville, N.Y., office. Matlat comes to A&G from DJM Realty, bringing 20 years of real estate expertise in managing special non-retail projects.

In his new role, Matlat will expand A&G’s real estate advisory services into the hospitality, industrial and residential sectors. He has achieved more than $500 million in sales of warehouse, industrial, hospitality and residential space.

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.

New York -- Saks Inc. announced that its chairman and CEO, Stephen I. Sadove, along with the company’s president and chief merchant, Ronald L. Frasch, plan to leave the company following the closing of its acquisition by Canadian retailer Hudson's Bay Co.

Canton, Mass. – Dunkin’ Brands plans to open 17 new franchise Dunkin’ Donuts stores in west and central Texas in the next several years.

New York – The Deloitte Consumer Spending Index, which tracks consumer cash flow as an indicator of future consumer spending, slightly dipped in August.

New York – Gap Inc. is launching a fall global marketing campaign called “Back to Blue” that features two videos with musicians Dhani Harrison and Alexa Ray Joel, which consumers can watch on TV, desktops and smartphones/tablets.

Pennsauken, N.J. – Becker’s School Supplies has relaunched its e-commerce site using the WebLinc platform.

The WebLinc platform allows Becker’s to offer a branded user experience and also provides back-end merchandising and management tools. Since rolling out its new site, Becker’s has experienced a 120% jump in revenue compared to the same period last year, and saw transaction volume increase by 81% as a result of improved online performance.

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.