Real Estate

New York City -- Mike Boylson, formerly executive VP and CMO of J.C. Penney, has traded retailing for baseball. The 32-year J.C. Penney veteran, who officially stepped down from the company on July 1, and a friend are opening a franchise of D-Bat, a baseball and softball training academy, Advertising Age reported. The facility is due to open this fall.

Walmart is among a group of retailers who further aligned themselves with a key Obama administration initiative this week by committing to open more than 1,500 stores in urban and rural markets defined as food deserts. The initiative is part of the Obama administration’s Let’s Move! campaign designed to address the nation’s weight problem by improving access to fresh foods.

Here are the facts:

• Walmart will open between 275 and 300 stores in food deserts by 2016.

Birmingham, Ala. -- Books-A-Million confirmed it has submitted a bid to purchase, among other things, the inventory, fixtures, equipment, and leasehold interests for 30 Borders locations. Under the proposed bid, Books-A-Million will assume the leases for these locations and continue to operate these stores. The move comes as Borders Group, after winning court approval, begins to liquidate its business.

Salisbury, N.C. -- Discount grocer Bottom Dollar Food plans to enter the greater Pittsburgh, and Youngstown, Ohio, markets, starting with 14 locations.

Most of the locations are expected to open in early 2012.
 

The current upheaval we’re experiencing with booksellers reminds me of those nature documentaries where the host talks about what happens when a giant tree in the forest comes crashing down, leaving a gaping hole in the forest canopy. In those instances, dozens of smaller trees and plants spring up to take advantage of that gap and soak up the new light.

New York City -- Nordstrom plans to open a Nordstrom Rack in Farmington, Conn., located just outside of Hartford. This will be the first Nordstrom Rack in Connecticut.

The new 35,000 sq-ft. store is scheduled to open during spring 2012 at West Farm Shopping Center.
 

New York City -- Victorinox Swiss Army said Thursday it will open five stores in 2011, the first of which opened July 1 in The Westchester in White Plains, NY.

According to Joachim Beer, president of global fashion and retail for the chain, future store openings include Boston, Short Hills, N.J., and Los Angeles, all slated to open prior to year end.

To plug the widening book seller gap, who are you going to call?  Chain Store Age columnist Jeff Green offers a few ideas of his own for filling the category chasm created by Borders' liquidation and Barnes & Noble contractions. 

Check out Jeff's newest column, "Turning the Page on Bookstores," on our real estate community site, under Retail Rap with Jeff Green, chainstoreage.com/community.