Real Estate

Bucksbaum Retail Properties opened for business in April 2012. The Chicago-based company has already opened one project and is working on four more.

The 53,000-sq.-ft. Kingsbury Center near North Chicago has opened with four tenants: Buy Buy Baby, PetSmart, Road Runner Sports and Jimmy Johns. It is a joint venture with Chicago-based Structured Development.

Here are several pure-play online retailers that are venturing into the physical space — or thinking about making the leap:

• Rent the Runway, which rents high-end designer gowns, dresses and accessories to women for weddings and other special events, will use a recent infusion of $24.4 million in financing to build showrooms where shoppers can try on the frocks and consult with stylists. The popular online destination reportedly has Chicago next on its agenda.

Sometimes the shortest pieces of advice are the best. Here are a few nuggets of wisdom pulled from Chain Store Age’s conversations with five leading real estate advisers and technology experts.

York, Pa. -- The Bon-Ton Stores announced it will close its Younkers store in the Rapids Mall in Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.

The company will not renew the lease, which terminates July 31, 2013. The closing will impact approximately 45 associates at this location.

The Bon-Ton acquired the leasehold interests in the Wisconsin Rapids store as part of the Northern Department Store Group acquisition in 2006. The department store retailer said it does not expect costs associated with the closing of the location to be material.  

Development chief details chain growth

Chain Store Age asked Paul Carolan, chief development officer for Dallas-based Le Duff America, about the bakery-café company's aggressive growth plan in the United States.

The North American subsidiary of Paris-based Groupe Le Duff SA, Le Duff America now manages four brands in the United States: Bruegger's Bagels, la Madeleine Country French Café, Brioche Dorée and Mimi's Café, which was acquired in March.

Madison, Ala., city officials didn't want just any development for its last available commercial tract, a 28-acre property along a major thoroughfare. They wanted to bring in retailers currently unavailable in the area.

They approached Target and Brentwood, Tenn.-based GBT Realty Corp., a developer known for its Target-anchored developments.

"Madison told us they wanted Target," explained George B. Tomlin, president and CEO of GBT Realty. "If you help us, they said, we'll participate financially in the development of the property."

As part of Von Maur's march beyond its core Heartland markets, in 2008 it opened a 130,000-sq.-ft. anchor store at the 1.1 million-sq.-ft. The Greene Town Center, located in Beavercreek, Ohio, and owned by MPI. That store has become the fashion heartbeat of a vibrant mixed-use destination that was originally built by MPI in 2006, expanded in 2008, and slated to expand again in 2014 with another 40,000 sq. ft. of retail.

The Glimcher Realty Trust pipeline is filled with open-air centers. "We're seeing a lot of opportunity in the market and even our own portfolio with open-air right now," said Michael P. Glimcher, chairman and CEO, Columbus, Ohio-based Glimcher.

Over the last three years, Glimcher has acquired five properties. Four were open-air. Today, open-air centers account for about 20% of the company's 29 properties.

Recently, Glimcher shared his insights about open-air and enclosed centers with Chain Store Age contributing writer Michael Fickes.