Retail

Boucherville, Quebec, Canada -- Canadian home-improvement chain Rona Inc. announced Tuesday it has named Robert Sawyer as president and CEO, effective next month.

Sawyer was previously an executive at grocery chain Metro Inc.

Rona’s acting CEO Dominique Boies will remain as company CFO.

Middletown, N.Y. -- National Realty & Development Corp. said that Chipotle Mexican Grill will join Orange Plaza with a new 4,625-sq.-ft. store.

Orange Plaza is an 815,000-sq.-ft. power center located in Middletown, N.Y. and anchored by Walmart Supercenter, Home Depot, Kohl’s, Burlington Coat Factory, Marshalls, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Staples.

Colton, Calif. -- The Hodgdon Group announced that it has completed construction of the conversion of a former Babies "R" Us building at Eastland Center in West Covina, Calif., for the opening of an Ashley Furniture HomeStore on March 15.

Hodgdon Group's HMC Construction handled all entitlements and served as the design-build contractor for the major renovation of the 42,000-sq.-ft. freestanding building. The West Covina location, in Eastland Center, represents the 15th Ashley Furniture HomeStore to be completed by the Hodgdon Group.

New York -- CVS Caremark has donated $250,000 to the Chicago State University’s College of Pharmacy for the development of the CVS Caremark Student Center and Technology Laboratory.

“This donation will help to improve the College’s physical space and technological resources, which greatly enhances student success within the College of Pharmacy. To say thank you is an understatement,” stated Dean Miriam Mobley Smith with the College of Pharmacy.

Dublin, Ohio -- The Wendy's Co. announced Tuesday an agreement with The Eljuri Group to develop 20 Wendy's restaurants in Ecuador.

As the largest business group in Ecuador, Eljuri said it expects to open the first two Wendy's locations in 2013 in Guayaquil, a coastal city with a population of 2.3 million people.  

Boca Raton, Fla. -- Real estate development firm Fimiani Development said that it has named Lindsey Alexander and Meredith Housman as VPs of leasing for the company.
 
Alexander and Housman will work with Simon Property Company, Kite Realty Group, Kimco and Office Depot and will focus on landlord representation as well as tenant representation.

Alexander was previously with Woolbright Development and Housman with Equity One.

Waban, Mass. -- Research results released Tuesday by consulting firm Temkin Group revealed, among retailers, Sam’s Club and Amazon earned top marks.

According to the 2013 Temkin Experience Rankings which queried 10,000 U.S. consumers about customer service issues across 246 companies in 19 industries, Sam's Club and Amazon earned the top spots in the retail sector and RadioShack was the lowest rated retailer for the third consecutive year.

Dallas -- The 49th annual SPECS conference officially kicked off on Monday morning at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas with two kinds of inspiration: Greg Buzek, present of IHL Consulting Group, introduced the Retail Orphan Initiative, and U.S. Navy Seal Scott Taylor presented Afterburner Black Ops, challenging the audience of retailers in design, construction, facilities, store planning and development to use Seal techniques to run their organizations.