Retail

Dallas -- Venture Commercial said Monday that The Plaza at Preston Center, in Dallas, will see the Texas debuts of Sprinkles Ice Cream and True Food Kitchen this spring, and international retailers LUBLU Kira Plastinina and Aftershock London have selected The Plaza for their flagship U.S. stores.

Venture, which serves as the exclusive broker for the lifestyle center located in the heart of the Park City neighborhood, also said that Sprinkles Cupcakes and Calypso St. Barth are expanding and/or relocating their stores at The Plaza.

San Bernardino, Calif. -- Stater Bros. Markets said Tuesday it has named that Peter Van Helden as president and COO, succeeding the retiring Jim Lee.

Van Helden was previously EVP retail operations for Supervalu.
 

Perryville, Md. -- Ikea said Tuesday it has plugged-in the solar energy system installed at its distribution center in Perryville, Md.
 
The 768,972-sq.-ft. PV array consists of a 2,674.9-kW system, built with 18,576 panels, and is the state’s largest rooftop array.

The Ikea distribution center will produce approximately 3,397,178 kWh of clean electricity annually, the equivalent of reducing 2,397 tons of carbon dioxide, eliminating the emissions of 499 cars or powering 359 homes yearly.  
 

New York -- Macy’s Inc. filed an appeal on Monday, challenging Manhattan state court judge Jeffrey Oing’s Friday ruling that J.C. Penney can sell unbranded Martha Stewart goods in its stores, at least temporarily.

Penney was celebrating the decision that would allow it to sell Martha Stewart items as long as they didn’t carry her name, especially since the products – valued by one analyst at $100 million -- were already manufactured and being stored in warehouses. 

True Value president and CEO Lyle Heidemann plans to retire May 31.

John Hartmann has been appointed as the company’s new president and CEO, following the retirement of Heidemann. Heidemann will continue to serve True Value through the end of 2013 as an adviser.

New York -- A Tuesday report by Bloomberg said that J.C. Penney has an additional plan to raise money; the retailer is said to be considering a spinoff of its real-estate holdings into a new unit that could issue debt.

Citing two unidentified sources, Bloomberg said Penney is also considering selling its real estate and then leasing it back as another avenue to free up money. And other assets, such as inventory, could be collateralized.

Softer than expected sales trends prompted Target to lower its first quarter earnings outlook Tuesday morning.

The company said it now expects first quarter comps to be flat, after previously forecasting a range of flat to 2% growth. The softer than expected sales prompted the company to revise first quarter adjusted profit expectations to an unspecified level of "slightly below" earlier guidance of $1.10 to $1.20.

By Keith Carpentier, Tensator.com/us