Footwear

Minneapolis -- The Opus Group announced the completion of four projects for St. Paul, Minnesota-based retailer Gander Mountain. Opus built three new 52,000-sq.-ft. Gander Mountain stores in Augusta, Georgia; Newnan, Ga. and Algonquin, Ill.; and managed renovations of the retailer’s 96,275-sq.-ft. store in Forest Lake, Minn.  

New York City -- SL Green Realty Corp. announced it has acquired the retail property located at 102 Greene Street for $32.25 million. The transaction marks the continued growth of the company’s prime retail property portfolio, which already includes several other assets in Manhattan’s SoHo retail district.   

New York --  Foot Locker Inc. announced that, as part of a planned succession process, Ken Hicks, 61, intends to retire as president and CEO of the company on Dec. 1, 2014. Hicks, a highly-regarded retail veteran who has been wooed by other retailers for the top spot, will be succeeded as president and CEO by COO Richard (Dick) A. Johnson, 56, who has been with Foot Locker for almost two decades.  

New York --Premium boot brand Sorel opened its first-ever pop-up, in Manhattan's Meatpacking District. The 3,300-sq.-ft. shop is designed in the brand's fashion-meets-utilitarian aesthetic. It features stark contrasts of black and white, and sleek and modern forms.

Montreal, Canada – Retail real estate firm Simon, private Canadian developer SmartCentres and Calloway REIT are celebrating the opening of Premium Outlets Montreal Thursday, Oct. 30. Featuring designer and lifestyle brands, the new centre has more than 80 outlet stores offering savings of 25 to 65% every day.    Many of these new outlet stores are unique to the Montreal metro area, including Michael Kors, Max Mara, The Hudson Bay Outlet, Desigual, Vans and many more.

New York –- Independent real estate firm RKF has arranged a 9,100-sq.-ft. lease for True Religion, a retailer of denim and denim-related sportswear, in the SoHo neighborhood of New York. Acting on behalf of the landlord, 513 Broadway LLC, RKF executive VP Ariel Schuster negotiated the transaction, offering 2,900 sq. ft. on the ground floor, plus two levels below totaling 6,200 sq. ft.   

Clifton, N.J. -- Blink Fitness is set to open its newest New Jersey location at Clifton Plaza in Clifton. The fitness chain will occupy 15,000-sq.-ft. of newly constructed retail space at the 80,000-sq.-ft. shopping center, which is managed and leased by Levin Management. Levin Management negotiated the long-term lease.   

Minneapolis –- Hair salon chain Regis Corp. and specialty footwear retailer Red Wing Shoes both recently engaged Insight Inc. to refresh their store systems.

 

Regis rolled out the Insight Retail Ready program to refresh its network infrastructure, server, wireless and points of sale in more than 2,000 U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico SmartStyle salons located in Wal-Mart stores. 

New York –- Online footwear retailer Zappos is ranked the simplest brand in the U.S. And that’s a good thing. According to the new Brand Simplicity Index ranking of U.S. brands from brand advisory firm Siegel & Gale, the top 10 list is dominated by retailers. The list includes Amazon.com at number two, Subway (#3), Pizza Hut (#4), Netflix (#5), Trader Joe’s (#6), Kroger (#7), McDonald’s (#8), Chipotle (#9) and Dunkin’ Donuts (#10).

Weaker than expected third quarter sales prompted Kohl’s to lower its profit forecast while noting that e-commerce sales increase 30%.

The company held an investor conference on Oct. 29 and said third quarter sales were expected to decline 1.4% due to softer than expected sales during October. The top line weakness caused the company to confirm that profits would be at the lower end of a previously forecast range of $4.05 to $4.45 a share.