Development/Redevelopment

Three experts have joined JLL’s brokerage team in Houston. Donna Kolius, Pierce Owens, and Kaylie Walker will be focusing on multi-market dispositions, national portfolio strategies, and sale leasebacks, which will help expand JLL’s disposition business.   

Think of it as an Airbnb for temporary spaces.    Appear Here, a British-based online marketplace for short-term retail space, has launched in the United States, with its initial expansion starting in New York City.  

San Diego-based RAF Pacifica Group recently acquired a 40,000-sq.-ft. land parcel (formerly the site of Cedros Gardens), in the Solana Beach section of San Diego for $5.5 million from a private owner.   The firm plans to develop 26,000 sq. ft. of the property, located within the rapidly growing Cedros Design District. The upscale community is known for its two-and-a-half-block, open-air shopping district housing yoga studios, eateries, galleries, and weekly farmers market.  

Store closings are commonplace. Online shopping options grow. From time immemorial, stores were built with brick-and-mortar. Better materials for today would be innovation and experiences.    We in the field of store design are seeing some promising signs that an evolution is underway.   

One of the fastest-growing regions in the nation--in both jobs and population — will be home to another retail-heavy mixed-use project.   RPS development and High Street Residential, a Trammel Crow unit, will be building 342,000 sq. ft. of retail and restaurant space encompassing 23 buildings in Allen, Texas, according to the Dallas Morning News.  

Orchestra is entering the United States, both online and off.    The 23-year-old French children’s and maternity fashion brand has launched its first English language website. The retailer will make its U.S. brick-and-mortar debut, opening newborn/children's clothing store at King of Prussia Mall, King of Prussia, Pa.  

A new retail experience is giving shoppers — and sports fans — the chance to feel like a professional athlete.   Mizuno, one of the world’s largest specialty sporting goods manufacturers and the official baseball gear partner of the Atlanta Braves, has entered the U.S. retail arena with the opening of The Mizuno Experience Center. It is the first retail store to open at The Battery Atlanta, a 400,000 sq. ft. mixed-use development located just outside the Braves’ new home, Sun Trust Park.   

Time was in New York City that new restaurants sprang up in the ground floors of old brownstones in Midtown or tenement buildings in Greewich Village and were deemed worthy or not by the demanding standards of Manhattanites. Not so in New York’s newest neighborhood.