Corporate Governance

Houston -- Baker Katz has announced the completion of the sale of a 47,395-sq.-ft. freestanding property leased to Gold’s Gym in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Baker Katz is a full-service retail brokerage and a member of real estate alliance X Team.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Limited Brands reported net sales of $737 million for May 2013, an increase of nearly 10% from $672 million for the same period last year. The company reported a comparable store sales increase of 3% for May from the same period last year. 

For the 17-week period ended June 1, the company reported net sales of $3 billion, an increase of 6% from $2.8 billion for the same period last year. Meanwhile, comparable store sales increased 3% for the 17-week period, versus the same period last year. 

As fans of the late ’90s Ben Affleck-Matt Damon film “Good Will Hunting” know, Cambridge, Mass., is often viewed as the province of what are locally referred to as “smaht kids.” I was privileged to be surrounded by “smaht kids” (or their grown-up equivalent) during the recent MIT Sloan CIO Symposium, which was held at Kresge Auditorium on the MIT campus in Cambridge. While there, I got to listen to their insights on how the evolution of IT and business is dramatically changing the role of the CIO.

Walmart U.S. chief merchandising and marketing officer Duncan Mac Naughton will have some explaining to do next week when he is scheduled to participate in the 33rd Annual William Blair Growth Stock Conference on Wednesday, June 12.

Charlotte, N.C. -- Jones Lang LaSalle has signed industry veteran Stephanie Moore as VP in its Charlotte office. Moore will work with John Bemis, executive VP and retail lead for the southeast region.

Moore comes to Jones Lang LaSalle from CBRE, where she represented landlords such as Equity One, Tishman Speyer, Behringer Harvard and Grosvenor in acquisitions and dispositions. She also conducted nationwide searches for Max Mara, GAP, Godiva and Hickey Freeman.

Dallas -- Regency Centers Corp. has closed on an off-market acquisition of Preston Oaks, a 103,503-sq.-ft. infill neighborhood center anchored by H-E-B Central Market. National retailers include Gap, Pier 1 Imports and White House Black Market.

Located in the Preston Hollow neighborhood of Dallas, Preston Oaks serves a market of 109,000 within a three-mile radius. Average household income is $144,000. The market’s population swells to 118,000 during the day.

SUFFERN, N.Y. — Lower-than-expected foot traffic driven in part by unseasonably cold weather was not enough to negatively impact Ascena Retail Group’s net sales for the third quarter ended April 27, which were bolstered by the recently acquired Lane Bryant and Catherines businesses.

Washington, D.C. -- Los Angeles, New York and Chicago top the list of the cities with the highest organized retail crime activity, with Miami and Atanta rounding out the top five, according to a study by the National Retail Federation.

The NRF’s ninth annual Organized Retail Crime (ORC) Survey found that while organized crime has inched down slightly, it remains widespread. Over 90% (93.5%) of retailers said they had been a victim of organized retail crime during the past year, down from 96% the prior year.