Development/Redevelopment

Five dynamic retail and restaurant brands — Altar’d State, Bentley’s Pet Stuff, MOD Pizza, Sugarfina and Warby Parker — took home the honors as the winners of Chain Store Age’s annual Breakout Retailer Awards.

The awards, selected by CSA’s editorial board and sponsored by Paint Folks, recognize innovative retail and restaurant concepts that are on their way up —brands that have crossed the “newbie” line, and are well positioned for growth, in store, online, or both.

How many American moms would love to see their sons grow up to become accountants or lawyers? Nick Over is both, but he decided to apply his skills and knowledge to the challenging world of real estate. After just two years at RPAI, the 36-year-old Over is steering the company into new avenues as its director of development. Chain Store Age spoke with him recently about his current pet project.

The best thing to do about asbestos? Leave it alone — if the structure is safe.

That was one of the takeaways from the SPECS session, “Hazardous Building Materials Among Us.”

Asbestos was a mainstay in both commercial and residential buildings for decades because, simply put, it was a cheap and readily available lifesaver, explained speaker Michael Ebel, VP and principal scientist at Amec Foster Wheeler.

“It was known as the ‘Miracle Mineral,’ heat-resistant, chemical-resistant, corrosion-resistant, and a poor electrical conductor,” Ebel said.

New store format emphasizes convenience

In its most ambitious store redesign to date, Target Corp. will debut its next-generation format in October, in a 124,000-sq.-ft. store in Richmond, Texas. The new prototype is designed for flexibility and convenience, and will offer open sight lines and elevated product presentations. It also comes with a variety of timesaving features, physical as well as digital.

In addition, 40 additional Target stores will receive elements of the redesign when they are updated, also in October. And there is more to come.

National Realty & Development Corp. landed the first anchor for its new project in Middletown, New Jersey, and it’s a whopper.  

CEO Joe Coradino and PREIT are serious about recapturing vacant department store space and refilling it with new customer experiences.   Just weeks after the opening of a Legoland Discovery Center at its Plymouth Meeting Mall in the Philadelphia suburbs, PREIT announced it had executed a lease at that property with 5 Wits, a live-action entertainment concept that immerses people into one of three adventures: Tomb, Deep Space, or Drago’s Castle.  

Shopping center owners added fewer centers in 2016, but demonstrated that less is more

As physical shopping centers battle furiously for customer share, more developers are realizing that bells and whistles aren’t just optional; they’re essential. No matter the size or scope, new shopping centers have to offer something extra to an increasingly discerning consumer — and the group of owners highlighted here is doing just that.

People and corporations are streaming back into America’s downtowns. Are they chain retailers’ best hope for growth?

“City of stars, are you shining just for me?” sings Ryan Gosling in this year’s hit movie musical “La La Land.” “City of stars, there’s so much that I can’t see.”