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Real Estate

  • Spotlight on The Tile Shop

    With home remodeling and housing starts on the rise, The Tile Shop is in a sweet spot. The specialty retailer of manufactured and nature stone tiles reported an 8.8% increase in net sales and a 4.9% increase in same-store sales for its first quarter. With 130 stores in 31 states, The Tile Shop displays its tiles in a showroomlike environment that includes full-room tiled displays and a design studio where customers can utilize 3-D renderings to visualize their design ideas.

  • TreeHouse Branches Out

    Home improvement start-up is dedicated to healthy, sustainable homes

    A start-up home improvement retailer with a green conscience has expanded out of its Austin, Texas, home with a first-of-its-kind store that’s generating lots of buzz.

    TreeHouse has opened the nation’s first home improvement “energy positive” (meaning it will generate more energy than it uses) store, at The Hill, a shopping center in Dallas. It’s the start-up retailer’s second location — but not for long. An additional store, planned for the Plano, Texas, area, is due to open this fall.

  • Now Trending …

    Enough of the “retail is dying” narrative that has dominated so many headlines the past few months. It’s way overplayed.

    Brick-and-mortar is evolving, not dying. And it’s full of exciting new players — many of them digitally native — that are infusing the industry with something it can always use: new blood. Here’s a quick rundown of some of these newcomers to the physical space:

  • Wireless carrier expands store network

    Sprint continues to expand its presence — this time in the Midwest.   The wireless carrier plans to add 30 new retail stores and more than 200 jobs throughout Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri and Nebraska by the end of 2017. The new jobs will include a combination of retail, operations and technical experts.   

  • Candy retailer acquired with eye to expansion

    The nation's largest specialty candy retailer may soon get even bigger.    BBX Capital Corp. has acquired It’Sugar for approximately $57 million. BBX said it plans to expand It'Sugar, which currently operates 95 locations in 26 states, by opening new retail stores in high-traffic leisure locations.   

  • Luxury department store puts a restructuring plan in motion

    Neiman Marcus is making moves to offset its debt and improve its capital structure.   The luxury department store’s first step was to eliminate 225 positions. Affected employees — which span all brands and operating divisions — will receive severance packages, and also be considered for other job openings within the company, according to the Dallas News.  

  • See’s Candies to open new stores in The Golden State

    A specialty retailer continues to expand its breadth.   See’s Candies plans to open nearly a dozen new or relocated stores by the end of 2017. All new locations will set up shop in California.    The new stores will be located in San Jose, Castro Valley, Manhattan Beach, Paso Robles, Laguna Hills, Glendale and Calabasas. The new locations come on the heels of new shops that have previously opened or moved this year into new or larger locations in Escondido, Windsor and Pleasant Hill, California.

  • Ratings service: B malls still reasonably strong

    Death knells for B-Class malls are rung regularly by the general business press and tech pundits, but a major ratings service is telling investors to hold off on funeral plans.   “There’s certainly been far more store closings in 2017 than in previous years…but I think it’s fair to say that investors are comfortable that bricks-and-mortar retail won’t disappear,” said Fitch Ratings managing director Huxley Somerville in a video released by the company this week.  
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