Corporate Governance

Dallas -- Neiman Marcus announced that Michael R. Kingston would be joining the company, April 23, as senior VP, CIO of The Neiman Marcus Group. Kingston succeeds Phillip Maxwell, who earlier this month announced his retirement.

Kingston joins Neiman Marcus Group from Ann Inc., parent company of Ann Taylor, where he was the executive VP enterprise transformation and technology.
 

Washington, D.C.  -- The retail real estate sector posted positive net absorption, a stable vacancy, and a near-stabilization of rent for the first quarter of 2012, according to the latest research from CoStar Group.

Minneapolis -- Supervalu on Monday announced three new executive appointments following the departure of Sue Klug, president of its Albertsons Southern California division.

Dan Sanders has been tapped to head Albertsons Southern California, Keith Wyche will lead Acme and Brian Audette has been named president at Cub Foods.

Replacing Klug will be Sanders, current president of Supervalu's Acme Markets division, based in Philadelphia. Sanders joined Acme in 2010 from United Supermarkets, Lubbock, Texas, where he served as CEO.

Louisville, Colo. -- Envysion, a leading managed video as a service (MVaaS) provider, announced that Big Lots has selected Envysion as a video service provider and has completed deployment of the Envysion Insight solution to approximately 1,200 of its retail stores.

Big Lots will utilize the Envysion Insight solution to improve loss prevention, operations and training efforts.

Relocating a business and a family from Memphis, Tenn., to St. Petersburg, Fla., is a short distance in miles, but for The Sembler Co., which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, the journey has been much longer.

“We have developed 350 projects, including 125 or 130 shopping centers,” said Mel Sembler, recently named chairman emeritus. “It’s been an interesting career.”

Editor’s Note: Chain Store Age’s 23rd annual survey of Fastest-Growing Managers measures new domestic and international third-party management and leasing contracts obtained during the preceding calendar year (2011).

Now more than ever, retail real estate is not a business to be conducted without forethought. The days of gut instincts and seat-of-the-pants decisions have been replaced by the need to plan far ahead to guarantee a company’s continued growth.

Editor’s note: Chain Store Age’s 23rd annual survey of Fastest-Growing Acquirers measured retail square footage purchased during the 2011 calendar year.

For some companies, being among the top acquirers of shopping centers almost is business as usual — top-ranked Inland Real Estate is a perennial leader, largely through avidly scouring daily for possible deals, while Kimco maintained its focus on top projects in top markets.

While there still is not enough new shopping center construction to warrant a “Fastest-Growing Developers” ranking system — as Chain Store Age provided for 20 consecutive years, from 1989 to 2008 — progress continues to be made.

2014 marked progress in new development, particularly on the outlet front

After nearly a decade of stalled growth in the shopping center industry, 2014 finally saw progress being made on the new development front. While it’s true that much of the ground-up construction was of the outlet center ilk, the value sector wasn’t the only new-build push.

Access to operating capital remains an ongoing challenge for some retailers, which are still facing a difficult time when it comes to securing a loan. The problem is particularly acute for small and medium-sized businesses: Among U.S. small business owners, 90% believe the availability of credit for small businesses is a problem, and 61% agree it’s harder to get a loan now than it was four years ago, according to a recent study by the American Sustainable Business Council, Small Business Majority and Main Street Alliance.