Restaurant

Newk’s Eatery is on track with its plans to double in size in the next three years.

The Jackson, Mississippi-based fast-casual chain entered six new markets and increased its store count by 27% in 2015, opening 20 new locations. It currently operates 96 eateries in 13 states.

Lowe's has added a retail veteran to its board of directors who serves on the boards of Dollar General and Books-A-Million.

Lowe's announced that Sandra B. Cochran, 57, has been appointed to its board of directors, effective immediately. The announcement brings Lowe's board of directors to 13 members, 12 of whom are independent.

Retailers are always looking for new promotional opportunities and with the arrival on the Lunar New Year a mall operator in upstate New York hopes to generate shopper traffic with a range of Chinese-inspired activities.

Houston -- SRS Real Estate Partners welcomes Jonathan Hicks as SVP and co-market leader in the Houston office. Hicks will lead the Houston office alongside team member, Cody Persyn.

"The addition of Jonathan to our Houston office complements our existing business immensely," said Woody McMinn, president of North American brokerage. "Cody's depth and tenure at SRS, and around the country, joined with Jonathan's market contacts and local industry involvement, are going to make a great market leader team."

Shake Shack and Uber have digitally collaborated on customer experience with a little help from Visa Inc.

In December 2015, New York-based, 66-unit Shake Shack and Uber utilized the new Visa Commerce Network to offer a cross-promotion. Built on the VisaNet electronic payment network and accessible through application programming interfaces (APIs), Visa Commerce Network works by connecting transactions between two merchants.

Popular Northeast grocer Stew Leonard's is planning to open a 70,000-sq.-ft. store in Long Island this year.

Construction on the new store will start this summer with an anticipated opening date of mid-2017, the company said. Earlier this month, Stew Leonard’s opened its first Long Island store in Farmingdale’s Airport Plaza on Route 110.

The family-owned and operated grocery chain was founded as a dairy store in 1969 in Norwalk, Conn.

Brooklyn, N.Y. -- Acadia Realty Trust and Washington Square Partners, co-developers of City Point, announced that Fortina, the Italian restaurant of chef, Christian Petroni, signed a 15-year, 4,612-sq. ft. lease, at the 1.8 million-sq. ft. mixed-use project in Downtown Brooklyn, New York.

Johnny Rockets, the franchisor and operator of Johnny Rockets restaurants, has named Susanne Stover as its CFO and member of its executive team. Stover will be reporting directly to CEO Charles Bruce, and will lead and implement strategies to drive growth and a financial infrastructure.

Stover is no stranger to the casual dining segment. She has held leadership positions as the CFO for the Rosa Mexicano restaurant chain and controller at the casual dining restaurant chain California Pizza Kitchen.