Real Estate

R.J. Brunelli announces three new clients
Old Bridge, N.J. — R.J. Brunelli & Co. has announced that it has been retained as exclusive real estate broker in several New Jersey counties for three fast casual chains: BurgerFi, Corner Bakery Café and Tommy’s Coal Fired Pizza. All three restaurants are seeking end-cap or freestanding pad locations with outdoor seating in lifestyle centers, power centers and other high-traffic locations, in areas offering high daytime and residential populations.
Old Navy, GNC opening in Middletown, N.Y.
Purchase, N.Y. — National Realty & Development Corp. www.nrdc.com has announced that Old Navy and GNC will open stores at Orange Plaza, an 815,000-sq.-ft. power center in Middletown, N.Y. Old Navy has taken 13,500 sq. ft. GNC will occupy 1,500 sq. ft.

Wal-Mart Supercenter, The Home Depot, Kohl’s Department Store, Burlington Coat Factory, Marshalls, Bed Bath & Beyond and Staples anchor the center, which draws from a 12-mile radius with a population of 157,000.

Mid-America brokers sale of St. Louis center

St. Louis — Mid-America Real Estate Corporation’s Investment Sales team recently brokered the sale of the 112,300-sq.-ft. South Oaks Plaza located in St. Louis for $9.5 million to Phillips Edison-ARC Shopping Center REIT Inc. Shop’n Save, Walgreens and Michaels anchor the center.

Mid-America

and Pace Properties represented the seller, a private St. Louis based investment group.
iPic Entertainment announces Delray Beach project

New York -- iPic-Gold Class Entertainment has announced that it will develop a mixed-use entertainment, office and retail project in Delray Beach, Fla.

Expected to open in 2015, the project includes a 529-seat eight-screen theater. iPic said the project would create more than 400 jobs and attract more than 400,000 visitors annually to downtown Delray Beach. The company currently operates nine theaters with 67 screens in Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin.
Report: American Dream Meadowlands mall close to signing big retailers

New York -- American Dream Meadowlands, the much-delayed shopping and entertainment complex adjacent to Metlife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., is close to signing several major retail tenants, according to Crain’s New York.

The complex, originally called Xanadu, was started in 2004, and never completed. It has gone through several changes in ownerships, eventually falling into default. In July, it was acquired by Canadian developer Triple Five Group.
Investing In Neighborhood Retail, Chicago-Style

L3 Capital invests in what it calls prime urban retail, which includes a lot of street retail in the premier cities. "We own retail properties in several neighborhoods in New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago," said Greg Schott managing piincipal.
At the end of last year, L3 made its first investment in its hometown of Chicago. The company bought four retail buildings along a flourishing four-block retail stretch of Southport Avenue in the Lakewood neighborhood. The cost was $13 million for 17,000 sq. ft.
Instant Neighborhoods

Millennials and boomers are driving an urban push
Generations after people deserted cities for the suburbs, young millennial-generation adults and older baby-boomer adults are moving back downtown.
Retailers aren't far behind, and new, seemingly instant neighborhoods — complete with housing, retail, offices and other forms of real estate — are springing up in redevelopment areas of cities across the country.
Project Profiles

WOODBURY TOWN CENTER

Location: Irvine, Calif. (SR 133 —the Laguna Freeway and the I-5 Santa AnaFreeway)

Size: 462,000 sq. ft.

Developer: Irvine Co. Retail Properties

Grocery anchors: Ralphs Fresh Fare, Trader Joe's

Key tenants: Home Depot, LA Fitness, Walgreens, Staples

Status: Open and operating since 2007
PREIT: Matching Mall And Grocer

Turns out, malls and grocers were made for each other.
A few years ago, Philadelphia-based Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust (PREIT) renovated Plymouth Meeting Mall in Philadelphia’s northwestern suburbs.
The renovation replaced an old Ikea on the site with a lifestyle component called Plymouth Meeting Mall’s Plaza Shops, which leads customers to the mall entrance.
PREIT brought in a 65,000-sq.-ft. Whole Foods Market as the anchor.
Grocery Evolution

Widening competition for commodity grocery sales is changing grocery-anchored shopping centers.
Supermarket-anchored shopping centers haven't changed much since the invention of suburbia. Find a good location, sign a grocery anchor, get a construction loan and some inline local, regional and maybe national retailers, and you're in business.
Today, however, supermarkets are beginning to change, and supermarket-anchored shopping centers, of course, must follow along.
Why are grocers changing? Competition from all sides.
New Sam’s Club opens in Glen Carbon, Ill.

Bentonville, Ark. – A new Sam’s Club store will open in Glen Carbon, Ill.. on Aug. 29. The store will feature a full-service pharmacy, an optical department and also debut the new Sam's Club Hearing Aid Center, offering technology in hearing aid and personal listening devices with access to a certified audiologist.

The 136,000-sq.-ft. store will use LED lighting, including in the cooler, freezer box doors and jewelry counter that is 70% more efficient than traditional fluorescent lighting.
Conn’s opens stores in Ariz., Texas

The Woodlands, Texas – Conn’s Inc. opens two new HomePlus stores on Tuesday in Tempe, Ariz., and Houston. The new Conn’s HomePlus store format showcases furniture and mattresses in addition to consumer electronics and home appliances.

The stores are located at 5000 Arizona Mills Circle, Tempe, and 9567 South Main Street, Houston. The Arizona Mills Mall location is Conn’s third new store in the Phoenix metropolitan market and fourth location in Arizona.