Development/Redevelopment

Plano, Texas – Rent-A-Center is opening a new store at 1611 Blue Hill Avenue in the Mattapan neighborhood of Boston today.

Rent-A-Center operates 70 locations in the state of Massachusetts and more than 3,000 stores in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Canada, and Mexico. The company employs more than 21,000 workers.

New York – David Yurman opens a new boutique at The Somerset Collection in Troy, Mich., today. Architectural firm Gabellini Sheppard Associates designed the 1,506-sq.-ft. location.

"As an American brand, we're proud to make a home for ourselves here in the Detroit Metro area." says David Yurman president Carol Pennelli. "Our partnership with Somerset Collection allows us to provide the luxury retail experience that is signature to David Yurman. We're thrilled to be in such extraordinary company."

Benicia, Calif. – Cycle Gear, Inc. has opened its first Indiana store on East 82nd Street in Indianapolis, near the Castleton Square Mall.

Cycle Gear will host a grand opening celebration weekend Sept. 20-22. Indianapolis is the latest in a recent run of store openings in the Midwest for Cycle Gear. The retailer, with more than 100 locations in 30 states, opened two stores in the Chicago area and one near Milwaukee earlier in the year.

Vornado Realty Trust chairman and CEO Steven Roth has resigned from J.C. Penney’s board of directors, according to a Reuters report. 

The article went on to say that Vornado, which owns office buildings and retail properties in New York and Washington, took a 9.9% stake in Penney at the same time that Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management bought a 16.5% stake in 2010 to push for big changes at the company.

New York -- Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent Gray vetoed a controversial bill that would have required Wal-Mart Stores and other large retailers to pay their employees at least $12.50 an hour. The bill applied only to retailers with stores of 75,000 sq. ft. or larger, at least $1 billion in annual sales and non-unionized workforces.

Philadelphia -- Destination Maternity Corp. plans to relocate its corporate headquarters and distribution center from Philadelphia, to southern New Jersey.

The company's corporate office operations (which are currently split between its headquarters at North 5th Street in Philadelphia and its offices in the Philadelphia Navy Yard) will move twelve miles from the current 5th Street headquarters facility to a completely renovated 74,000-sq. ft. building in Moorestown, New Jersey. The chain expects the move to occur in fall 2014.

Canton, Mass. -- Dunkin’ Donuts announced that it has signed agreements with two franchise groups to begin developing Dunkin' Donuts restaurants in the United Kingdom. The two agreements call for the development of 50 Dunkin' Donuts restaurants in Greater London over the next five years, with an initial focus on North London and East London.

Davenport, Iowa -- Von Maur Department Stores will open its first location in the Northeast, at Eastview Mall in Victor, N.Y., which is located just outside of Rochester. The two-level, 140,000-sq.-ft. store is scheduled to open on Oct. 26.

Located at the mall's former Bon Ton location, the store underwent a complete reconstruction by local contractor LaChase Construction to achieve Von Maur's signature exterior brick façade with arching entryways accented by a copper roof and cupolas.

Mount Vernon, Ill. — Big Lots has signed a lease for 32,022 sq. ft. at Times Square Mall in Mount Vernon, Ill., about 80 miles east of St. Louis. The store is slated to open in the first quarter of 2014.

Pittsburgh — Dick’s Sporting Goods has announced the grand opening weekend of its new location in Oakwood Center in Gretna, La., beginning Sept. 13.

The Gretna location will be the retailer’s fifth store in Louisiana and its 530th nationwide.