Smoothie King

Ralphs is inviting customers to take advantage of the convenience of online grocery shopping at its Carlsbad, Calif., store, and the retailer plans to expand the service company-wide by the end of the year.

Blue Nile jumped into the physical space last summer with a store at Roosevelt Field mall in Garden City, New York, but it’s not stopping there.   The online jeweler has opened two additional locations, at Tysons Corner Center mall in Fairfax County, Virginia, and at The Westchester mall in White Plains, New York. Blue Nile will open a fourth store later this summer, at the Washington Square mall in Portland, Oregon.  

Toronto - Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) is capitalizing on 42 real estate assets. The retailer has closed a joint venture with Simon Property Group focused on credit tenant, net-leased and multi-tenanted retail buildings in the U.S. and internationally.   

Toronto -- Canadian retail giant Hudson’s Bay Co. (HBC) has entered into two blockbuster deals, forming joint ventures with Simon Property Group and Canada’s RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust to target real estate growth opportunities in the United States and Canada. Both ventures are structured to facilitate an IPO at a later date.

The partnerships, which combined are valued at about $3.4 billion at the current exchange, are the latest example of retail companies moving to leverage their valuable real estate assets.

Oklahoma City – Fast food chain Sonic is heading upstate. Sonic has signed a new agreement for franchise development of eight new drive-ins in the Albany, New York area during the next seven years, with the first restaurant opening in Latham this spring.  

 

In a move to streamline operations at its 700-plus locations, Smoothie King Franchises Inc. is rolling out Revel Systems’ iPad POS solution across its entire store network. The company said it selected the Revel platform for its scalability, speed and user-friendly technology.

Highland Village, Texas -- Trademark Property Co., the Fort Worth-based retail and mixed-use development, investment, and third-party services firm, announced that Whole Foods Market is now open at The Shops at Highland Village, in Highland Village, Texas. The store is the first Denton County location for the natural and organic foods retailer.

Los Angeles – Global real estate investment and services firm Kennedy Wilson has closed four retail and entertainment lease transactions in Hollywood, Santa Monica and Westchester. This collection of new leases, which carry an aggregate value of more than $3 million, points to an uptick in the Los Angeles retail market.