Real Estate

The nation’s two leading mattress specialty firms are one.

On Friday, Mattress Firm completed its $780 million acquisition of rival Sleepy’s. The combined company will have annual sales of over $3.6 billion through approximately 3,500 retail locations in 48 states.

Sports Authority is taking steps towards filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, according to Bloomberg.

The retailer has a debt payment due in 10 days and in talk with its lenders about a reorganization plan under which it would close as many as 200 of its more than 450 stores, the report said.

Sports Authority reportedly skipped a $20 million in interest payment in January on a $343 million loan. It has 10 days to make the payment.

JCPenney is pursuing a possible sale and partial leaseback of its headquarters building in Plano, Texas, as part of an ongoing effort to reduce debt and manage expenses.

The company announced Friday that a combination of favorable market conditions and a surplus of available square footage within the building make this an attractive real estate opportunity.

As we look at the white hot commercial real estate market, it’s clear that value-add and opportunistic investors are chasing deals in new asset classes and locations that are less than ideal. And it makes sense: they are return-driven, happy to take more risks to chase higher yields. But when the market inevitably comes down, they’ll have more to lose.

It makes no sense for Amazon.com to open the type of physical bookstores it helped obliterate, not when the online giant already has the physical infrastructure in place to support a large scale rollout of another type of store in one of retail’s hottest sectors.

At Home has added four more locations to its growing store portfolio.

The big-box home décor retailer announced it has entered the state of Minnesota, opening a 107,000-sq.-ft. store in Burnsville. (The company plans to open a second store in the state, in Blaine, this June.)

Newk’s Eatery is on track with its plans to double in size in the next three years.

The Jackson, Mississippi-based fast-casual chain entered six new markets and increased its store count by 27% in 2015, opening 20 new locations. It currently operates 96 eateries in 13 states.

Houston -- Baker Katz, an X Team International partner and full-service commercial real estate brokerage firm specializing in retail tenant representation, investment sales, and project development and leasing, announced that it has purchased 30,000 sq. ft. of land in Houston and completed a 7,000-sq.-ft. lease on behalf of Advance Auto Parts. Construction will slated to begin this month with an opening in May 2016.