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For more than half a century, Chain Store Age’s annual SPECS conference has delivered one of the retail industry’s most important and impactful events.        The 2017 event, to be held March 12-14 at the Gaylord Palms, Kissimmee, Florida, will cover a wide range of emerging and evolving issues, focusing on must-see innovations and essential information about trends, topics and technologies that will be impacting the industry for many years to come.   

CBL announced it has closed on a sale of three Tier 3 malls to Hull Property Group for a price of $32.25 million. Changing hands are the Randolph Mall in Asheboro, North Carolina, and the Regency Mall in Racine, Wisconsin.    The identity of the third property was not disclosed.  

For more than half a century, Chain Store Age’s annual SPECS conference has delivered one of the retail industry’s most important and impactful events.   

The past year brought with it seismic shifts as the retail industry continued to adapt to the evolving digital landscape and changing shopping habits. It also brought with it a changing of the guard, as many companies anointed new leaders to steer their ships in a transformed marketplace.    Here are six newly arrived (or soon to arrive) CEOs to keep an eye on in 2017:    Jeff Gennette, Macy’s Inc.

Construction on Fifth+Broadway, a $430 million mixed use project destined for the former site of the Nashville Convention Center, will get underway in second quarter 2017, according to co-developers OliverMcMillan and Spectrum Emery. It will include 183,000 sq. ft. of retail space.   The mixed-use project will house the National Museum of Africa American Music and feature 345,000 sq. ft. of high-rise residential and 350,000 sq. ft. of offices. A 16,000-sq.-ft. roof-top event deck is also in the blueprints.  

Four senior executive promotions have been announced by Mid-American Real Estate Corporation.   Brian Adams, Greg Bayer, and Willie Hoag have all been named principals at the Oakbrook, Illinois-based company, a real estate services company that also operates in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Peter Scannell has been promoted to senior VP.  

When the Northern Lights Center in Anchorage, Alaska, was owned by folksy former governor Wally Hickel, things were good for Title Wave Books. The midtown neighborhood was in decline, rent was cheap, and husband-and-wife owners Julie Drake and Steve Lloyd were able to make a living from their low-margin inventory.  

A mall owner in Springfield, Missouri, has asked the town council to declare the area surrounding his site blighted and charge a tax to go towards improvements to his property.   Curtis Jared told town administrators that sprucing up his Brentwood Shopping Center would create more jobs and tax revenue, according to local radio station KTTS. He wants them to form a community improvement district allowing a one-cent increase in the local sales tax.