Real Estate

Sephora is taking experiential retail to a new level in New York City.   The beauty retailer has remodeled two of its high-profile Manhattan locations to its new “Beauty Tip” (Teach, Inspire, Play) store format. The locations include Sephora’s 11,300-sq.-ft. store on 34th Street, its largest store in North American, as well as a Fifth Avenue location.   

South Moon Under is on the move.   The on-trend fashion retailer, which carries a variety of contemporary brands, will open its first stores in the South in April, with locations at Ponce City Market, Atlanta, and Avalon, Alpharetta, Georgia. In the fall, the company will open a store at Shops Around Lenox, Atlanta.    

Officials in New Rochelle, New York, want the right kind of retail partners for an aggressive redevelopment of its downtown, and it’s counting on big data to ferret them out.

The town has engaged Fort Worth-based Buxton to employ its Scout real estate analytics platform to identify restaurants and stores that will best synch with the dining and shopping habits of its residents.

Starbucks Corp. is making some changes to its Seattle headquarters that include a couple of format debuts.   The coffee giant is set to open its first-ever location that only accepts mobile orders and payments on the eight floor of the building, reported the Puget Sound Business Journal.  

Ashley Stewart has opened its first-ever “concept store,” in Newark, New Jersey.

The 4,500 sq.-ft. location marks a significant milestone for the company as it is the first brick-and-mortar opening since the reinvention of the brand, which has gone through a turnaround under the leadership of CEO James Rhee, http://www.chainstoreage.com/article/unlikely-champion-ashley-stewart.  

Trusted national news sources such as the Wall Street Journal and New York Times continue to augur the fall the mall, but many American towns won’t give them up without a fight.   One such is Racine, Wisconsin, whose City Plan Commission advanced a scheme to revitalize the failing Regency Mall by forming a tax increment district (TID) around the 134-acre site that includes out-lots housing Target, Home Depot, Toys R Us, and the High Ridge Center.  

Going local is the big trend in retail center food and beverage options, so why not for retail brokerage houses?   That’s the tack CBRE is taking in its Seattle office with the hiring of two long-time leasing pros from Washington State-based Wallace Properties, which lays claim to scouting out the best locations from “Olympia to Bellingham and from Seattle to Spokane.”  

Dollarama ended the year with a strong fourth quarter, an increase it credits to higher customer spending.   For the fourth quarter ended January 29, 2017, the Canadian discount retailer’s sales increased by 11.5% to $854.5 million. The chain’s gross margin was 41.4% of sales, compared to 40.8% of sales.