Transform SR Brands LLC

Toronto -- Sears Canada Inc. will enter into a series of transactions related to two stores within shopping centers co-owned by Oxford Properties Group and Alberta Investment Management Corporation that give the co-owners the right to require Sears Canada to vacate the properties by March 2014. The transactions, valued at $191 million, affect stores at the Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto and at Square One Shopping Centre in Mississauga.

For anyone involved in retail, it feels like the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) Spring Convention in Las Vegas signifies an important yearly milestone. Those of us in the industry can be forgiven for visualizing a “retail year” that begins immediately after the convention in May and runs until RECon opens its doors the following year.

Leominster, Mass. -- Vintage Real Estate has purchased The Mall at Whitney Field, a 700,000-sq.-ft. regional shopping center in Leominster, Mass., about 35 miles west of Boston. Anchors include Macy’s, Sears, J.C. Penney, Market Basket, Toys “R” Us and Old Navy.

Concurrent with the acquisition, Burlington Coat Factor signed a 10-year lease for a 66,000-sq.-ft. space formerly occupied by Circuit City.

CHICAGO, Ill. — Mercent, a leading technology company that enables retailers to reach and convert more shoppers online, has signed a strategic partnership with Shop.com, the e-commerce arm of Market America. 

This latest partnership expands Mercent’s portfolio of online shopping destinations supported by its SaaS platform and offers leading retailers the ability to market and sell to millions of consumers on the Shop.com third-party marketplace.

Albany, Ore. -- Vintage Real Estate said that it has signed a lease with Hobby Lobby for a 61,000-sq.-ft. store at the Heritage Mall, marking the arts-and-crafts retailer’s first location in Oregon.

Hobby Lobby will be located in a former Gottschalks space.  It is expected to open in the first quarter of 2014. “Our ability to quickly fill this long-vacant space is a major step in the execution of our renovation and repositioning plans for Heritage Mall,” said general manager Betsy Penson.

Hoffman Estates, Ill. -- Sears Holding Corp. reported a bigger-than-expected net loss of $279 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2013, compared to net income of $189 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2012. The retailer also said that it is considering selling its protection-agreement business in an ongoing effort to raise cash as it struggles to improve its profits.

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — Sears Holding Corp. reported a bigger-than-expected net loss of $279 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2013, compared to net income of $189 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2012. 

The retailer also said that it is considering selling its protection-agreement business in an ongoing effort to raise cash as it struggles to improve its profits.

OAKLAND, Calif. — Columbia Sportswear is headed to the Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference, being held May 21-23, in Phoenix, Ariz., to share insights and best practices for deploying cloud technology alongside GT Nexus. 

Fred Pond, VP, CIO of Columbia Sportswear, and Kurt Cavano, chief strategy officer at GT Nexus, will share lessons learned from Columbia's technology approach to executing global procure-to-pay processes in which buyers, suppliers, financial institutions and other key third parties operate on the same cloud platform.