Footwear

IRVING, Texas — Michaels is not the first place you think of when it comes to getting a pair of shoes for graduation day, but the arts and crafts retailer is courting graduates seeking to jazz up their footwear for their big day. 

Madison, Ala., city officials didn't want just any development for its last available commercial tract, a 28-acre property along a major thoroughfare. They wanted to bring in retailers currently unavailable in the area.

They approached Target and Brentwood, Tenn.-based GBT Realty Corp., a developer known for its Target-anchored developments.

"Madison told us they wanted Target," explained George B. Tomlin, president and CEO of GBT Realty. "If you help us, they said, we'll participate financially in the development of the property."

Von Maur got its start like many of its department store peers: An immigrant with an American dream opened a downtown store, customers came, they shopped, the brand took hold and took off.

In the case of the midwestern upscale department store banner Von Maur, the dreamer was German immigrant J.H.C. Petersen, who opened a downtown storefront in Davenport, Iowa, in 1872. He and his sons grew the business and sold it nearly a half-century later to a partnership that included two Austrian brothers — C.J. and Cable von Maur, whose family gained full ownership by 1937.

I visited my first Von Maur store in 1999, a decade after I relocated from southern boomtown Atlanta to Lincoln, Neb., a sleepy college town that only really wakes up on Husker football Saturdays. Today I am back home in Baton Rouge, La., still no bustling metropolis, but the food and football trump.

Montreal -- Jesta I.S. said Monday it has expanded its relationship with Canadian shoe store operator Town Shoes, parent to the Sterling Shoes, Shoe Warehouse and Freedman Shoes banners, to include the implementation of the multichannel order management capabilities delivered by Vision E-DOM.

In deciding to implement Jesta I.S., Town Shoes will further leverage its existing IT infrastructure, at the backbone of which are Vision’s foundational Merchandising ERP and POS systems.

Virginia Beach, Va. -- Divaris Real Estate has announced the completion of several leases for retail space in Virginia Beach, Norfolk and Richmond, Va.  
 
The first lease was signed with O’Reilly Auto Parts for 12,608 sq. ft. in a former Rite Aid pharmacy located in Norfolk.  O’Reilly operates 13 other stores in Hampton Roads.
 

El Paso, Texas -- Dallas-based Venture Commercial Real Estate said it has negotiated leases for two retailers entering or expanding in the El Paso, Texas, market.
 
Rue21 has opened a 5,000-sq.-ft. store at El Paseo Marketplace, its fourth location in El Paso.

Jared, The Galleria of Jewelry has signed a lease to open its first El Paso location in a 6,057-sq.-ft. store at The Fountains at Farah, a 600,000-sq.-ft. power lifestyle center currently under construction and opening fall 2013.   

New York -- RKF has arranged a 1,500-sq.-ft. lease at 35 Crosby Street in SoHo for men’s e-commerce apparel brand Bonobos, which will open its first stand-alone Guideshop location in New York City.

Bonobos currently operates five other brick-and-mortar locations elsewhere.

In the cast iron district of SoHo, the retailer will operate in 1,000 sq. ft. on the ground floor and 500 sq. ft. on the lower level of the seven-story building. The new store is slated to open in mid-May.

Huntsville, Ala. -- Brentwood, Tenn.-based GBT Realty has completed construction on Huntsville, Ala.’s first Academy Sports + Outdoors. The 72,000-sq.-ft. store, which opened on April 26, is the third Academy Sports development for GBT. Reed Construction served as site contractor and Stewart Perry Construction as general contractor on the project.

GBT completed construction in fall 2012 for stores in Mobile, Ala., and Smyrna, Tenn.

NEW YORK — The Jones Group Inc. has nominated chairman and CEO of Barington Capital Group James A. Mitarotonda to stand for election to the board of directors at the company's 2013 annual meeting of stockholders. 

With the addition of Mitarotonda, the Jones board of directors will expand to 11 members, 8 of whom are independent, 10 of whom are non-management and all of whom are annually elected.