Microsoft

An end-to-end e-commerce solution now enables Rent-A-Center visitors to shop online from their desktop, laptop, or mobile device.   Rent-A-Center’s new platform enables guests to choose from more than 73 available products, primarily consumer electronics. The new solution also gives shoppers the option to complete an online form to obtain pre-approval to rent from within one of Rent-A-Center’s approximately 2,600 store locations.   

A subsidiary of NewMark Merrill Companies has acquired Southgate Plaza in Sacramento five years after it was hired by the owner to re-tenant and reposition the center.   The 339,369-sq.-ft. Southgate has the distinction of being anchored by three grocery stores — Walmart Neighborhood Market, 99 Ranch Market, and 99 Cents Only. Other tenants include Ross Dress for Less, Skechers, Payless Shoe Source, Farmer & Merchants Bank, and Taco Bell.  

Heidenberg Properties has received planning board approval to build a new 54,000-sq.-ft. Stop & Shop prototype at its Lake Plaza Shopping Center in Mahopac, New York. The store will replace a Key Food supermarket and increase total square footage at the center to 165,000 sq. ft.   “This was a complicated process involving multiple municipal agencies,” said Heidenberg VP of Operations Jason Lazar.” We are excited to deliver the new prototype for Stop & Shop."  

Coop Italia, Italy’s largest supermarket chain, is looking to reinvent the customer experience in grocery shopping.    In collaboration with Accenture, the retailer has opened a flagship in Milan that merges the physical and digital to recreate the atmosphere of local open-air markets. Billed as the “supermarket of the future,” the store uses innovative digital solutions that provide product information, improve store navigation and engage customers.      

Fort Worth-based Trademark Property Co. is making a move to more data-driven marketing efforts with the hiring of Jency Keeton as director of corporate marketing.   As digital brand manager for global marketing at Fossil, Keeton doubled the retailer’s social media audience and directed its website, email, blogging, and influencer programs. Her digital promotions, contests, and user-generated content programs were deployed in stores and all other customer touch-points.  

Olshan Properties will pay tribute to the new president-elect and fellow developer Donald Trump at the International Council of Shopping Centers New York Deal Making show, which kicks off at the Javits Center on Monday.   Staffers at the Olshan booth will be sporting blue “Make Retail Great Again” baseball caps as they promote a message, said a release, of elevating retail to bring local communities together by connecting with their hometown shopping centers.  

Adam Cummings, an 18-year veteran of retail leasing, has been named senior VP and retail occupier practice leader at CBRE. Cummings will direct retail representation in the mall sector.   The company also announced the return of Matt Kircher as managing director and executive VP of its San Francisco office. Kircher began his real estate caeer at CBRE in the 1990s.  

VEREIT has purchased a 10.5-acre Sam’s Club property in Timonium, Maryland—just north of Baltimore — for $18.3 million in cash.   “The seller was able to secure an early lease extension prior to the sale, which created a well-positioned, long-term passive investment for the new ownership,” said Jon Busse, Senior VP at Colliers International, which handled the deal on behalf of the seller, Diamond Timonium LLC.