Development/Redevelopment

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.”

Whether purchasing individual assets or restructuring entire portfolios, top acquirers have plans and stick to them.

Stick to your knitting. That appears to be the mantra for this year’s top acquirers, all of which, save one, have appeared on this list in previous years. Most relate that, in the late stages of a recovery, discipline, tenacity and structure are key to closing deals. This year, staffers at two of these tenacious companies can chant, “We’re No. 1!”

Trending Stores: The Frye Company’s location in Denver took top honors as Store of the Year in the 2017 Shop! store design competition. With a design that celebrates the artisan heritage of Frye, one of the country’s oldest footwear companies, the 2,460-sq.-ft. store has a warm and comfortable vibe, with a modern ski-lodge aesthetic. Local references include a massive working fireplace dressed with stone from local quarries, and rugs woven with American Indian motifs.

Broker Faith Hope Consolo, who’s placed countless retail businesses in some of Manhattan’s best neighborhoods, has lately turned her attention to Harlem. She’s happy to note that restaurants and national retail brands are blossoming uptown, but that – outside of a Whole Foods opening on 125th Street – full-size supermarkets are nonexistent since the Pathmark closed there last year. And it’s not just a Harlem phenomenon.

Deborah Butler’s vision to remake her family’s Gainesville, Florida, retail complex into a unique, local phenomenon got a little clearer this week.   Butler has put noted local chef and restaurateur Bert Gill in charge of curating the dining establishments at the Stengel Field Food Hall at Butler Town Center, scheduled to open in 2018. It takes its name from the aviation school run on the site in the 1940s and ‘50s by pioneering pilot Carl Stengel.