Retail

Dallas — SRS Real Estate Partners www.srsre.com has opened the doors to a new office in Birmingham, Ala. The company has also brought in Martin Smith to serve as senior VP and co-market leader alongside Josh Burmeister.

A 13-year veteran of the commercial real estate industry, Smith specializes in landlord representation, tenant representation and investment sales. Prior to joining SRS, he spent seven years with Retail Specialists, where he was director of brokerage and project leasing.
 

Retailers will gain $81 billion from the “Internet of Everything,” which is the term given to the connectivity of an increasing number of people, processes and things, in 2013. But according to new research from Cisco Systems, Inc., this only reflects 45% of the potential return.

Lansing, Mich. — Mid-America Real Estate Corporation’s Investment Sales team has brokered the sale of a portion of the 313,000-sq.-ft. Edgewood Town Center in Lansing, Mich. Office Max and Dollar Tree anchor the center, while Target and Sam’s Club shadow anchor.

RCG Ventures LLC purchased the 86,000-sq.-ft. portion, whch excludes shadow anchors, for an undisclosed amount from Ramco-Gershenson Properties Trust. Mid-America represented Ramco-Gershenson.

Beachwood, Ohio — DDR Corp. has announced the closing of its previously announce acquisition activity totaling $591 million. The acquisitions include a portfolio of seven prime power centers in a newly-formed joint venture with an affiliate of Blackstone Real Estate Partners VII L.P. for $332 million in August and two market dominant regional power centers in Orlando, Fla. and Atlanta, Ga., for an aggregate $259 million in July.

Springfield, N.J. – Village Super Market reported net income of $6.2 million during fourth quarter 2013 and $25.8 million during the full fiscal year. These figures were respectively down 31% from $9 million and 18% from $31.4 million year-over-year.

The retailer cited the negative impact of higher expenses and lower gross profits as contributing to its drop in net income.

Mars Chocolate North America has unveiled a new line of candies in several flavors just in time for Halloween.

The candy maker announced the release of its latest line, which includes Snickers peanut butter pumpkin-based singles, as well as jack-o-lantern-shaped Snickers-brand pumpkin, available in two packs. The company is also releasing a new large variety bag of Snickers Fun Size canned, available in Snickers Original, Almond and Peanut Butter Squared bars.

To remain in the same e-commerce class as its peers, Pennsauken, N.J.-based Becker’s School Supplies, Inc. redeveloped and relaunched its online retail site on the WebLinc e-commerce platform.

“We needed a significant upgrade of our Web presence,” explained Robert Bonczkiewicz, catalog manager at Becker’s. “Competitors in our space are top-notch and we needed to get up to speed.”

Los Angeles – The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf has experienced significant lift across key social metrics such as local Facebook fans and impressions using the MomentFeed location-based marketing platform.