Microsoft

In an age when mall owners’ overriding challenge is what to do with the space left by departed department stores, one 50-year-old center in California landed a new one.   Penney last week opened a 119,000-sq.-ft. location at Inland Center in San Bernardino, joining co-anchors Macy’s, Sears, and Forever 21. The fully renovated space it occupies was last home to Gottshalks.   

Raley’s, the Northern Californian grocery chain, got one step closer to its vision to build a neighborhood “hub” in Sacramento.   According to a report in the Sacramento Bee, the city’s Planning and Design Commission voted 12-to-1 to approve the chain’s plans for “The Park,” a 108,000-sq.-ft. open-air center ringed by a metal canopy and featuring large store windows and shrub-filled “green screens.”  

Round One, Japan’s answer to Dave & Busters, announced it will open its first New York State location at the Galleria at Crystal Run in Middletown.    The entertainment brand offers bowling, karaoke, billiards, and darts, as well as food. Other new locations in Colorado, Georgia, and Pennsylvania will bring its U.S. store total to 14. Round One spaces are generally 80,000 sq. ft.; the Middletown store will be only 45,000 sq. ft.  

Until this week, Rouse Properties’ northeastern-most retail possession was The Centre at Salisbury in Maryland. But its purchase this week of an 115,000-sq.-ft. center outside of Hartford, Connecticut, gives the developer a footprint planted firmly in New England.  

In 2013, Newport Capital Partners paid just over $31 million for Danada Square East, a 200,000-sq.-ft. center in Wheaton, Illinois, anchored by a Dominick’s supermarket. Yesterday, Newport sold the property for $63 million.  

Once the mecca of “Valley Girls” lured by white marble interiors and retailers like Saks and I. Magnin, the Promenade Mall in Warner Center north of Los Angeles will be razed and replaced by a $1.5 billion mixed-use development.   Westfield, owner of the 43-year-old, 550,000-sq.-ft. mall, has announced a re-imagination of the site in line with the Los Angeles City Council’s Warner Center 2035 plan to urbanize the area.  

Michael O’Hanlon, a 35-year real estate industry veteran, has been hired as OliverMcMillan’s new chief operating officer. The company’s properties include The Shops at Buckhead in Atlanta and the River Oaks District in Houston.  

Inland’s ad tagline says the company’s “always buying.” One of the nation’s leading drugstore chains just found out how true that is.   Inland Real Estate Acquisitions announced that it has acquired 24 CVS pharmacy properties for $116 million. The stores are located in 14 states and add up to 276,466 sq. ft. of retail space.