Tenant Update

By Ben Carrasco, litigation associate, Smith, Robertson, Elliott & Douglas, LLP, Austin, Texas,
[email protected]

Shrewsbury, N.J. -- National Realty & Development Corp. said Tuesday that Colonial American Bank has joined the line-up of tenants at Shrewsbury Plaza, located in Shrewsbury, N.J.

Colonial American Bank’s location in the 225,000-sq.-ft. shopping center is the bank’s second location in New Jersey and is slated to open spring 2013.

Anchor tenants at the center include Marshalls, Acme and AC Moore.

Frenchtown Township, Mich. -- Youngstown, Ohio-based Cafaro Co. said Monday that rue21 will open a new store at Mall of Monroe, located in Frenchtown Township, Mich.

The 5,700-sq.-ft. store is slated to open June 2013 in the mall’s south concourse, and will be the only rue21 location in Monroe County.

Cafaro also said that The Monroe Expo Center opened Feb. 4, converted from a former retail use to a 51,000-sq.-ft. event space.

Fort Worth, Texas -- Trademark Property Co. said Tuesday that Dick’s Sporting Goods and Corner Bakery Café will open this year at The Shops at La Palmera in Corpus Christi, Texas. The 61,233-sq.-ft. Dick’s store will anchor the 200,000-sq.-ft. redeveloped and rebranded center, located across from La Palmera mall. Construction on Dick’s is set to begin in February with opening slated for fall 2013.

Scheduled to open in May is a 4,166-sq.-ft. Corner Bakery Café, adding to its 140 locations across the country.

Walmart’s efforts to gain share in California’s grocery market continued this week with the opening of another Neighborhood Market in San Jose.

The 41,000-sq.-ft. store is Walmart’s second Neighborhood Market in San Jose and third in the San Francisco area and could be a sign of more to come. Since opening it first Neighborhood Market in California last summer, the format has quickly grown to approximately 20 locations. And there are likely more to come as Walmart looks to accelerated expansion of smaller format stores nationwide in the coming years.

New York -- Abercrombie & Fitch wants to turn the building that once housed the Beatles’ Apple Records into one of its namesake children’s stores, Bloomberg News reported.  

The building is where the famed singing group performed together for the last time, in 1969. The performance, which occurred on the roof, was filmed for the movie “Let It Be.” The Westminster borough council is due to vote on the proposal next week.

Aurora, Colo. -- Brixmor Property Group announced Wednesday a 28,000-sq.-ft. lease was executed with Books-A-Million at Arapahoe Crossings, located in Aurora, Colo., a suburb of Denver.

Brixmor, based in New York City, is the owner of Arapahoe Crossings.

Corpus Christi, Texas -- Brixmor Property Group announced Wednesday that a 12,420-sq.-ft. Petco recently opened at Five Points, located in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Brixmor, based in New York City, is the owner of Five Points.

Phoenix -- Cole Real Estate Investments announced it executed leases totaling 1,658,000 sq. ft. at Cole-related properties throughout 2012.  

The transactions included 390,000 sq. ft. of new leases and 1,268,000 sq. ft. of lease renewals, bringing Cole’s multi-tenant retail property occupancy rate to 97.7%.

Mishawaka, Ind. -- Brixmor Property Group said that Anytime Fitness has opened a 4,200-sq.-ft. facility at Bittersweet Plaza, located in Mishawaka, Ind.

Brixmor, based in New York City, is the owner of Bittersweet Plaza.