Real Estate

Austin, Texas – A flagship Whole Foods market is reportedly coming to a corner location in midtown Atlanta. According to the Atlanta Business Journal, the multi-level, 70,000-sq,-ft. will anchor a 14-story mixed-use development that will also include 390 luxury apartments.

Miami-based The Related Group is developing the project, with Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart serving as architect.
 

Scottsdale, Ariz. - Cold Stone Creamery is planning to heat up the ice cream market in the Indian subcontinent. The retailer is entering India and Sri Lanka.

Kahala Brands, the parent company of the Cold Stone Creamery brand, is partnering with Tablez Food Company, part of Lulu Group International LLC, to open 40 stores in India and five stores in Sri Lanka during the next five years. The first store will open by the end of the year at the Lulu Mall in Kochi, India.

Birmingham, Ala. -- In a deal that may take it private again, Books-A-Million Inc. has given its OK to a buyout deal from the family of its original owners.

The chain reached an agreement to be acquired by a newly organized entity owned by the Anderson Family, which includes Books-A-Million executive chairman Clyde B. Anderson, for $21 million, or $3.25 a share in cash. (According to the most recent SEC filing, the Anderson family already owns 58.2% of the company).

QVC is ramping up its distribution network on the West Coast with a new, state of the art facility in Ontario, Calif.

The multichannel retailer plans to open a West Coast distribution hub there in 2016. As QVC ramps up operations, the center is expected to employ more than 500 team members by 2018. QVC anticipates hiring approximately 1,000 team members in total by 2020 as the distribution center expands fulfillment to all product categories.

New York – Barnes & Noble Inc. will officially spin off its education unit on Aug. 2, 2015. Barnes & Noble shareholders will receive 0.632 shares of Barnes & Noble Education stock for each share of Barnes & Noble stock they hold as of July 27, 2015.

Barnes & Noble Education will function as a separate public company and trade under the symbol BNED on the New York Stock Exchange. Barnes & Noble will continue trading on the NYSE under the symbol BKS.

Boston – A three-level CityTarget store is a main feature of a new $315 million mixed-use development on Boylston Street in the Fenway neighborhood of Boston. The Samuels & Associates development also includes a 172-unit luxury apartment building and adjoining 11-story office tower.

Read more.
 

Austin, Texas – Whole Foods Market has received approval for the design of a planned 40,000-sq.-ft. store from the Planning and Design Review Board of the City of Miami Beach. The design features a well-proportioned grid of white concrete, establishing a pedestrian loggia at the ground level, and a floating garden above that screens the parking.  

Doha, Qatar – The world’s largest mall is coming soon. The Mall of Qatar, which will encompass almost 4.2 million-sq.-ft. with 400 shops, a luxury hotel, a family entertainment center, a five-star restaurant and 82 other eating establishments, is slated to open in first quarter 2016.