Starbucks Coffee Co.

Boston – Retailers including CVS and Starbucks, as well as Tavern in the Square and an independent bookstore, are soon coming to the South Station transportation terminal in Boston.

According to the Boston Globe, real estate management firm Equity Office says CVS will open a two-story store in South Station in March 2014. Construction, including an elevator and escalator, is expected to start in November 2013.

Seattle – Close to two million customers and employees have signed Starbucks Coffee Company’s “Come Together” petition that seeks to break the current deadlock in Washington. The petition urges the nation’s elected leaders to reopen the federal government, pay debts on time and pass a bi-partisan and comprehensive long-term budget deal by the end of the year has close to two million signatures.

Ridgefield, Conn. —Schimenti Construction Company is building a $1.5 million Panera Bread cafe on Fifth Avenue in midtown Manhattan. The company began the project in September and will complete construction in January 2014.

Panera adds to Schimenti’s roster of fast-casual restaurant clients, which includes Starbucks and Chipotle. A project for another new client, Chik-Fil-A, is slated to begin in 2014.

Earlier this year, quick-serve behemoth Dunkin’ Brands, which operates 10,500 Dunkin’ Donuts in 31 countries and 7,000 Baskin Robbins in 50 countries, announced its first new store design in seven years.

San Diego  — Representing a real estate investment trust, The Mansour Group has sold a portfolio of five Applebee’s for $13.3 million.

To complete the transaction, The Mansour Group sourced a private high net worth California investor, who sold an apartment complex and acquired the portfolio through a 1031 exchange. The restaurants are located in North Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, Minnesota and Kentucky:

Arlington, Texas — With more than 135 stores across the country, Pet Supermarket has leased 6,000 sq. ft. of retail space in Fielder Plaza, a community retail center in Arlington, Texas.

The Weitzman Group, the exclusive retail-leasing agent for the center, handled negotiations for the transaction. Pet Supermarket will join Tom Thumb grocery, CVS/pharmacy, Starbucks, Allstate, T-Mobile and others. Cencor Realty Services manages Fielder Plaza.

Boston — The Wilder Companies has been awarded five new leasing and management contracts for nearly 900,000 sq. ft. in five shopping centers on the north and south shores of Boston.

The Crossing at Walkers Brook in Reading, Mass., is a 480,000-sq.-ft. center featuring Jordan’s Furniture, an IMAX Theatre and The Home Depot. An 80,000-sq.-ft. pedestrian-friendly lifestyle portion of the center features Staples, Golfsmith, the Paper Store, Macaroni Grill, Chili’s, and Starbucks.

Seattle -- Starbucks Corporation is requesting that customers no longer bring guns onto its property, either inside or outside its stores — even in states where “open carry” laws permit them to do so — with the exclusion of law enforcement personnel.

Company founder, chairman and CEO Howard Schultz made the request in an open letter posted under his name on the Starbucks website. The company plans to buy ad space in major national newspapers to run the letter.

Seattle -- Starbucks Corp. said that Troy Alstead, CFO and chief administrative officer, has been promoted to CFO and group president, Global Business Services.

Alstead’s promotion is a recognition of the increasing responsibility and complexity of his role overseeing Starbucks global financial, technology and supply chain operations and ensuring that the company’s overall business infrastructure is optimized to support the company’s global growth.