Deals

One of the nation's best-performing department stores retailers may soon be out of the public arena.    Nordstrom family members are close to selecting Leonard Green & Partners to help fund a buyout of their namesake department store, reported CNBC, which cited people familiar with the matter.  

Michael P. Glimcher, who stepped down as the chief executive of WP Glimcher last year, has been named CEO of Starwood Retail Partners. He succeeds Scott Wolstein, who has taken on a new role as senior adviser to the parent company, Starwood Capital Group.  

Many American communities see the closing of a long-successful department store as a tragedy. Town officials of Oak Lawn, Illinois, see it as an opportunity.   “It is a great location and I think its future…can be very, very bright and strong, and so does the owner of the property,” village manager Larry Deetjen said of the shopping center at 95th Street and Pulaski Road in an interview with the Chicago Tribune.  

David Weinreb, who took The Howard Hughes Corporation public, will now take the company well into the next decade.   The Dallas-based company announced it has entered into a new employment agreement with Weinreb that runs through 2027. As part of the deal, Weinreb completed the acquisition of nearly two million stock warrants in the company at a cost of $50 million.  

RadioShack is entering the latest chapter in its ongoing financial saga — but on a positive note.     On Thursday, RadioShack’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan cleared a preliminary court review. This decision enables the retailer to move forward with its strategy to reorganize, and save a small portion of the company, according to Dealerscope.  

PREIT, which has long been pursuing a strategy of unloading underperforming malls from its portfolio, announced it has sold the Logan Valley Mall for $33.2 million net of credits issued to the buyer. The new owner’s identity was not released.   The Altoona, Pennsylvania, mall -- anchored by Macy's, J.C. Penney and Sears -- had been turning in sales-per-square-foot of $324 versus an average of $475 for the rest of the PREIT portfolio.  

It didn't take long for cities across North America to throw their hat in the ring when Amazon announced it had initiated a search for a city in which to build a second headquarters.    In seeking proposals, Amazon laid out some very definite criteria, including population requirements (one million or more). CNBC examined the criteria and suggested that five cities are worthy of a close look by Amazon: New York, Atlanta, Chicago, San Francisco and Boston.   

The Bon-Ton Stores Inc.'s struggles may be catching up with it.