Restaurant

Doha, Qatar – The world’s largest mall is coming soon. The Mall of Qatar, which will encompass almost 4.2 million-sq.-ft. with 400 shops, a luxury hotel, a family entertainment center, a five-star restaurant and 82 other eating establishments, is slated to open in first quarter 2016.

“Now Trending” is a new exclusive online series to chainstoreage.com, featuring trending topics that impact the retail real estate landscape.

As revitalized urban spaces continue to flourish in cities across the country, the concept of co-working spaces has gained considerable traction. The growing popularity of this new workspace arrangement is more than just another piece of the urban puzzle, it is one of the driving forces helping to shape a new generation of emerging urban landscapes.

Dallas – The Elephant Bar casual dining chain is herding loyalty members as they approach local stores.

The 29-unit retailer has deployed the Paytronix Geofencing solution to send messages designed to compel visits from members of its rewards program when they are within a set proximity to a restaurant.
In a review of three recent campaigns, Elephant Bar determined that approximately 30% of members visited a restaurant on the day that they received a geofencing message.

Aliso Viejo, Calif. - Johnny Rockets is partnering with foodservice consulting group EMPAD to support purchasing and distribution for the brand's U.S. restaurants. As part of the relationship, EMPAD will assist Johnny Rockets with distributor pricing verification, analysis, sourcing and more to improve the supply chain process for the brand's franchise and corporate-owned restaurants.

Cincinnati -- The highly publicized mixed-use project Liberty Center, in Cincinnati, Ohio, has just announced its first slate of retail tenants.  

With a scheduled October 2015 opening, Liberty Center includes more than 800,000 sq. ft. of retail, restaurants and entertainment, including a 200,000-sq.-ft. Dillard’s anchor that will be the state of Ohio’s first ground-up Dillard’s store.

Dallas - Village on the Parkway, a 357,731-sq.-ft. retail center situated on 31 acres in Dallas, announced that four new retailers will open at the property during the next few months. Privately held real estate firm Vestar currently handles property management, leasing and marketing at the center.

The new retailers include Soma, which will occupy 2,549 sq. ft. with a July 18 opening. Also opening on July 18 is Francesca’s, which will occupy 1,400 sq. ft.

Canton, Mass. – Dunkin’ Donuts is making a big expansion effort in the mid-Atlantic area.

The coffee chain has signed multi-unit store development agreements with seven franchise groups to develop 51 new restaurants in Virginia and West Virginia during the next several years.

The seven franchise groups and their development plans include:

Seattle – Although coffee prices are on the wane, Starbucks Corp. is facing rising wage and rent expenses. The retailer is passing at least some of those costs along to the consumer with higher prices on some beverages.