Real Estate

Newport Beach, Calif. -- X Team International announced that partner Strategic Retail Advisors has been selected as a broker for the 81,658 sq. ft. of development surrounding a premium outlet center made up of shops and pads fronting Avenida Vista Hermosa in San Clemente, California.

Photo: Fernando’s owner Fernando Padilla with CityLine location general manager Omar Hernandez.

If you’ve been reading this column over the last four years, let me first say, “thank you!” It’s gratifying to think that my musings about retail and retail real estate have kept your attention and interest. In this, my 100th and final (except for an occasional contribution) Retail Rap, I wanted to tackle the big question: What’s next? Where is the retail industry — particularly brick-and-mortar — headed in the months and years ahead?

New York -- Fresh off the opening of its store on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, Apple is opening another location in New York City.

The tech giant will open a store on July 11, in the Queens Center mall, in the borough of Queens, giving it a total of eight locations in the city.  

The Queens store will reflect the diversity of the surrounding community. It will feature some 130 associates fluent in 24 languages apart from English.
 

Houston -- Charming Charlie has appointed Melissa Boughton as senior VP of real estate & construction, where she is spearheading the retailer’s real estate, store planning, construction, facilities and lease administration functions.

Chicago -- Marbles: The Brain Store is in an expansion mode.

The retailer has opened a new store in Washington D.C., at National Harbor, the waterfront shopping and entertainment district on the Potomac River. It is Marbles’ second location in the Washington, D.C., area and its third to open this summer, with new stores debuting in Times Square in New York City and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, marking its first location in the southern region.

Cincinnati -- Phillips Edison Grocery Center announced it has acquired three grocery-anchored shopping centers in Michigan, California, and Massachusetts.

Crossroads Towne Center is a 102,275-sq.-ft. grocery store-anchored shopping center in Howell, Michigan, a suburb of Ann Arbor, Michigan. The center is anchored by Kroger, and also features national tenants Great Clips, Jets Pizza, Subway, H&R Block, and Little Caesars.  

London - McArthurGlen Group, an owner, developer and manager of European designer outlets, is opening its first North American location on July 9, in Vancouver. McArthurGlen Vancouver Airport is designed in an open-air village style, with a luxury piazza and tree-lined streets.

On opening, the center will offer 240,000-sq.-ft. of retail space with 50 new stores, featuring Armani, Coach, J Crew, Hugo Boss, Ports 1961, Tommy Hilfiger and Polo Ralph Lauren, with more brands to come before the end of 2015.

Los Angeles -- American Apparel on Monday announced it would close some stores as part of a $30 million cost-cutting initiative in its strategic turnaround plan. (American Apparel CEO Paula Schneider discussed the plan with CSA in a recent interview.) The embattled company also made two other revealing disclosures.

Charlotte, N.C. – Family-owned Belk Inc., which hired Goldman Sachs in April to explore “strategic alternatives,” may have landed on a high-end shopping list. According to Reuters, New York-based equity firm Sycamore Partners may be considering bidding $3 billion to $3.5 billion for Belk.

Belk operates about 300 stores and averages about $4 billion in annual sales. In the first quarter of fiscal 2015, Belk reported earnings of $21.8 million and sales of $958 million, both of which were year-over-year improvements.