Real Estate

Century 21 Department Store is set to open its doors on Fulton Street in downtown Brooklyn.   The store, the off-price retailer’s 11th location, will occupy four floors and 140,000 sq. ft. at City Point, a 1.8 million-sq.-ft. retail, residential and office space under development. It officially opens on Oct. 11.   

Hotels may just be the new frontier for retailers.    Shinola, the quirky company best known for its pricey watches, bikes and leather goods, already has its headquarters, manufacturing arm and a flagship in Detroit. Next on the agenda: a 130-room-plus boutique hotel.  

AT&T is pulling out all the stops in San Francisco, opening its largest, most elaborate and most tech-centered store to date.   The new, two-level 24,000-sq.-ft. flagship is housed in an historic building located next to the busy and popular cable car turnaround on Powell Street. Constructed in 1908, the building has been restored from floor to ceiling back to its original Baroque architectural design.    

Leading-edge developers, retailers bring stores to people, not people to stores

Raceways appear to be the newest fertile ground for retail. International Speedway Corporation recently started construction at One Daytona, a mixed-use project across from Daytona International Speedway, and now Tanger Outlets has started up a new center a lap away from Texas Motor Speedway.  

TRENDING STORES: PetSmart debuted a new store concept that puts a big emphasis on pet services. The 7,400-sq.-ft. PetSmart Pet Spa, in Oceanside, N.Y., is decidedly smaller than PetSmart’s typical footprint and features a self-service dog wash, a grooming salon and a coffee bar-lounge area. The overall modern design includes a circular “concierge” desk with a bakery full of dog treats.…Amazon Books plans to open its fourth location, a 7,200-sq.-ft. store in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood.

Founded by Don and Barbara Brinkerhoff nearly a half century ago, Lifescapes International made its bones as an architectural landscaping firm on the Vegas Strip, where it created the fire show at The Mirage and the water show at the Bellagio. What the founding couple learned in Vegas, their daughter, Julie Brinkerhoff-Jacobs, now applies to retail and lifestyle centers like Triple Five’s American Dream and Rockefeller Center’s Channel Gardens.

Just two years after leaving the company, Tom Kiler has rejoined Edens as senior VP in charge of the company’s 20 Texas properties.   Kiler will be responsible for management of the current portfolio in the Lone Star State and will direct acquisitions, development, and operations of Edens properties in Dallas and Houston. These include Houston’s Uptown Park and Dallas’s Preston Royal.