Real Estate

New York — Dear Rivington, a designer fashion boutique selling clothing, eyewear, pottery and jewelry, has signed a lease to relocate to a new location in the NoHo district of Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The 3,300-sq.-ft. store features 2,000 sq. ft. of ground floor space with high ceilings and a skylight. The 1,300-sq.-ft. lower level has also been fitted out for retail and not just storage.

The distinctive storefront features oversized barn style doors that give the store a private feel.

Philadelphia — Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust has executed leases with Retail Group of America to bring three international brands F&F, Flormar and SuiteBlanco to the Patrick Henry Mall in Newport News, Virginia. The transactions illustrate PREIT’s strategy for improving portfolio performance by seeking out emerging, first-to-market options.

▲ Understand the assets covered by your leases: Taken together, leases are more than just one of a chain’s largest costs — they are the largest fixed expense, and they are fixed for the long term. As a rule, individual leases average seven to 10 years.

“Understanding that is critical,” said Michael P. Glimcher, chairman and CEO, Glimcher Realty Trust, Columbus, Ohio.

▲Construction and construction costs are not an exact science: Information derived from data may be predicable; people are not.

▲ The process takes time: Construction encompasses more that just the time it takes to physically build a store. It also involves the lease-negotiating phase, drawing phases, permit phase and bidding phase.

▲ Smaller spaces don’t always translate into big cost reductions: It’s often assumed that as store square footage gets smaller, the overall costs go down.

Toronto - Slate Retail REIT has entered into a binding agreement to purchase North Summit Square, a 99% occupied, 224,530-sq.-ft. grocery-anchored shopping center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for $15.8 million. The property is anchored by Sam's Club.

"We are very excited to announce our first acquisition since listing on the TSX," said Blair Welch, CEO of Slate Retail. "We see several further opportunities to make accretive acquisitions of grocery-anchored centers in attractive markets."

Sporting goods and apparel retailer Academy Sports + Outdoors has renewed multi-year contracts with Auburn University and the University of Alabama. The renewal means that it will continue to sell the universities’ licensed products in its 13 Alabama stores.
 
The retailer is currently an official sponsor of University of Alabama’s Crimson Tide and official sporting goods retailer for Auburn University’s Tigers, and has been working with the two universities for several years.
 

Bentonville Ark. - Sam’s Club will open a new Kansas City, Missouri store on June 26. Measuring approximately 136,000-sq.-ft., the new store will feature a variety of members-only amenities, including a fresh bakery, a tire and battery center, a café and a fuel station.

To staff the new Kansas City store, Sam’s Club has hired more than 180 new associates.
 

Philadelphia — Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust has completed the previously announced sale of South Mall in Allentown, Pennsylvania, for $23.6 million. Net of closing costs, settlement pro-rations and credits, proceeds from the transaction totaled approximately $23.1 million.

In addition, PREIT has entered into an Agreement of Sale to dispose of its two remaining non-core malls — Nittany Mall and North Hanover Mall.

Victor, N.Y. -- Bass Pro Shops announced plans for a new Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World in Victor, New York, which is part of the Rochester metro area. The 145,000-sq.-ft. store will be the primary anchor for Fishers Ridge, a 96-acre mixed-use development. The store has a tentative opening date of 2016.

This will be the company’s third store in New York, as it currently operates stores in Auburn and Utica. This will be the first large-format store in the Empire State.