Real Estate

SILVER SPRING, Md. — Regency Centers Corp. and a co-investment partner have acquired the 31,316-sq.-ft. Shoppes of Burnt Mills in Silver Spring, Md., just north of Washington, D.C., for $13.6 million. Regency’s share of the off-market acquisition was $1.7 million.

NEW YORK — Hudson’s Bay Company has reached a deal to buy Saks Inc. The Canadian retail conglomerate, which operates Lord & Taylor in the United States and Hudson Bay in Canada, will purchase Saks and its 41 stores for a total of about $2.9 billion. Purchase price includes $16 per share of Saks as well as the assumption of Saks’ debt.

MIAMI — Regency Centers Corp. has announced the development of Fontainebleau Square, a 320,339-sq.-ft. grocery anchored community center, the company’s first ground-up retail development in Dade County.

Fontainebleau Square has signed Publix Sabor (45,600 sq. ft.) and Target (139,751 sq. ft.) as anchors. Construction starts this month, with anchor openings expected as early as October 2014.

St. Louis — Build-A-Bear Workshop narrowed its second-quarter loss to $6.2 million from $7.5 million in the year-ago period, boosted by improved sales and store productivity.

Total revenues were $81.9 million , up 1.9% from the $80.4 million reported in the second quarter of 2012.  Same-store sales rose 7.3%, including an 8.6% increase in North America and 1.7% increase in Europe. E-commerce sales rose 5.2%.

Halifax — Walmart Canada on Friday opened its first supercenter in Atlantic Canada, in the Halifax Shopping Centre Annex in Halifax.

The store is one of 37 supercenter projects planned for the company's current fiscal year, which ends January 31, 2014. The projects, which were announced earlier this year, include building new stores and expanding, remodelling or relocating existing stores and represent an investment of more than $450 million in the Canadian economy.

Walmart has opened its first supercenter in Canada’s eastern Maritime provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The retailer, which has operated in Canada for nearly two decades, plans to invest $90 million this year in the renovation and expansion of nine locations in New Brunswick and Novia Scotia.

New York – The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co. (A&P), which exited bankruptcy last year, is reportedly looking to sell itself. A report in the Wall Street Journal indicates that an internally distributed company memo from A&P chairman Gregory Mays to store managers states a sale of A&P is one of several options for funding growth, along with raising capital and refinancing.

ABILENE, Kan. — Argonne Capital Group LLC, a private investment firm based in Atlanta, Ga., has entered into a definitive merger agreement with Alco Stores, which will allow Argonne to acquire all outstanding shares of the broad-line retailer’s common stock for $14 per share in cash.