Development/Redevelopment

Boca Raton, Fla. – The Altman Companies has closed on 10 acres in the Westchase area of Tampa, Fla., with close proximity to downtown and Clearwater. Construction on the 239-unit mixed-use Altis at Highland Park rental community is scheduled to start right away with first units to be delivered in July 2014.

The community will feature a mix of 239 apartments and 5,000 sq. ft. of retail space. Lender for the development is PNC Bank.

Shanghai, China -- The Walt Disney Co. announced plans to open its first store in mainland China, in Shanghai. The 53,000-sq.-ft. Disney Store, expected to open in early 2015, will be the company’s largest store to date.

The store will be located in Shanghai's financial hub. It will feature an approximate 10,800-sq.-ft. retail space, and a Disney-themed outdoor plaza area that can be used to host outdoor events. The surrounding area has foot traffic of more than 40 million visitors a year.

The Walt Disney Company said it would enter China in 2015 with a new retail location planned for Shanghai that measures 10,800-sq.-ft. on a 53,000-sq.-ft. site in the heart of the city’s financial district.
Disney currently operates 340 worldwide locations but until this week’s announcement in Shanghai had steered clear of opening stores in mainland China.

Petco has opened its first store in Mexico and announced plans for continued expansion in Mexico and Latin America through a previously announced joint venture with Grupo Gigante of Mexico. Together, the companies plan to open as many as 50 Petco stores in Mexico and Latin America by 2020.

Canton, Mass. – Dunkin’ Brands Group, the parent company of Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin Robbins, reported that its third quarter net income grew 36% to $40.2 million.   

Revenue increased 8.5%, from $171.7 million, to $186.3 million.

St. Louis -- Build-A-Bear Workshop shrunk its net loss in the third quarter of fiscal 2013 to $1.4 million from $4.3 million in the same quarter a year earlier. The company announced that it expects to close an additional 10 to 25 stores in fiscal 2013 and 2014 and, along with opportunistic store openings, expects to reach a store count of approximately 250 stores in North America.

Consolidated net retail sales were $83.6 million while operating 31 fewer stores compared to $84.3 million in the fiscal 2012 third quarter, a decrease of 0.9%.

Sidney, Neb. – Cabela’s said that strong performance from its next-generation store format helped drive its third quarter net income up 16.6%, to $49.9 million compared to $42.8 million in the year ago quarter. The company also announced plans for three new stores.

Revenue grew about 15%, from $741.2 million to $850.8 million. Same-store sales grew 3.9%.

Sidney, Neb. -- Cabela’s Inc. announced  plans to enter three new markets – Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada; Garner, N.C.; and Sun Prairie, Wis.

Construction on Cabela’s 100,000-sq. ft. Garner store – its first North Carolina location – is scheduled to begin next summer. The store is expected to open in spring of 2015.

Louisville, Ky. — The Mansour Group has announced the sale of Pet Smart and TJ Maxx, a 49,410-sq.-ft. retail box on an outparcel located in a 218,000-sq.-ft. shopping center owned by Weingarten. The seller was a national real estate advisory group and the buyer was a private investor.

 The offering is part of a large portfolio of similar former Service Merchandise assets — all exclusively listed by The Mansour Group.

Queens, N.Y. — The Fresh Meadows neighborhood in Queens is getting an Unleashed by Petco store. The new store will begin its grand opening celebrations Saturday, Nov. 9 and continue the celebrations over two more weekends.

The Fresh Meadows Unleashed buy Petco will host several community gatherings throughout the year. There will be adoption events aiming to unite the area’s shelter pets with forever homes, Pug-a-Palooza, local dog meet-ups, contests and social gatherings.