Retail

Minneapolis — Twin Cities’ fashion retailer “Len” has renewed its lease at Minneapolis City Center with a seven-year commitment. The existing 7,196-sq.-ft. store is the retailer’s only downtown location following the consolidation of several brands and stores over the last six months. The chain operates five more locations in Minnesota and one in Illinois.

Minneapolis City Center is the two-story retail portion of a 1.6 million mixed-use property owned by Shorenstein Properties LLC.

Seattle -- Nordstrom announced plans to open at a Nordstrom Rack at The Shops at River Walk in Bakersfield, Calif. The approximately 35,000-sq-ft. store is scheduled to open in spring 2015.

The new Nordstrom Rack will be the company's first location in Bakersfield.

By Scott Klatsky, director of retail leasing, Time Equities, Inc.

New York City is the world’s retail hub — and within the city are major opportunities for retail expansion.

In fact, Time Equities, Inc., has availabilities all over Manhattan — from Greenwich Village/NYU to Midtown to Upper West Side to Tribeca to Financial District ... even Brooklyn Heights.

Santa Barbara, Calif. – Shopper activity rebounded in March 2014 from the prior month, but traffic and engagement lagged compared to March 2013. In-store retail analytics provider Euclid, released its monthly retail benchmarks report to analyze shopper activity and behavior during the month of March, measuring data from tens of millions of domestic shopping sessions.

Atlanta -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has named The Home Depot as a 2014 Energy Star Partner of the Year – Sustained Excellence for its outstanding contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions through promotion of energy-efficient products. The Home Depot, an Energy Star partner since 2001, will be honored for its leadership in its long-term commitment to energy efficiency through promotion of energy-efficient products that earn the Energy Star, the government-backed symbol of energy efficiency.

Washington, D.C. -- Import volume at major U.S. retail container ports is expected to increase 6.1% in April 2014, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates. U.S. ports followed by Global Port Tracker handled 1.26 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEU) in February 2014, the latest month for which after-the-fact numbers are available.

Los Altos, Calif. -- Shoppers using the Catalog Spreee iPad app read 60% more catalogs and viewed 39% more catalog pages when compared year-over-year (first quarter 2014, compared to first quarter 2013). In addition, Catalog Spree’s new quarterly iPad Shopping Trends Report indicates half of all shoppers visited a retailer's website directly from the app to view further product details.

New York -- Coldwater Creek Inc. is planning to liquidate its assets after a bankruptcy filing that is expected to come soon, Bloomberg News reported. The filing would come five months after the specialty women's apparel retailer, which is based in Sandpoint, Idaho, said it was exploring strategic alternatives, including a sale.