Apparel

North Olmsted, Ohio — Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services has arranged the sale of North Olmsted Towne Center, a 95,446-sq.-ft. shopping center in North Olmsted, Ohio, approximately 17 miles southwest of Cleveland. The selling price was $17.79 million, $186 per square foot.

Towne Center tenants include David’s Bridal, The Tile Shop, Jimmy John’s, La-Z-Boy, Men’s Wearhouse, Moe’s Southwest Grill, Party City and Pearle Vision.

Whitehouse, Ohio — Devonshire REIT has acquired five retail properties in Ohio for $31 million. The properties include:

•    Monroe Street Square Shopping, a 124,904-sq.-ft. center in Toledo, Ohio, anchored by Hobby Lobby. Tenants include Sally Beauty Supply, Gamestop, Play It Again Sports and Sprint PCS.

•    Bed Bath & Beyond Plaza, a 100% leased, 55,139-sq.-ft. center in Toledo, anchored by Bed Bath & Beyond. Tenants include SalonCentric and Edward D. Jones.

January 2014 is projected to be the coldest in three years for the U.S. as a whole. The storm track, which will favor the milder and wetter Pacific, will be driven inland across the West with storms moving into the Plains and then heading into the Great Lakes or re-developing off the New England coast. This pattern will produce colder trends across the East Coast, but there will be short warm-ups ahead of the storms that will help to keep average temperatures near normal.

Holiday sales are up 2.3% so far this season with the bulk of gift card redemptions yet to contribute to the results, according to new data from MasterCard SpendingPulse.

Chicago -- Rough weather last week prevented many last-minute shoppers from getting to the stores to finish up their holiday purchasing. ShopperTrak reported that for the week of Dec. 16 to Dec. 22, GAFO in-store retail sales decreased by 3.1% from the same week last year. Retail brick-and-mortar shopper traffic decreased by 21.2% compared to the same time period in 2012.

Hampstead, Md. – The board of directors of Jos. A. Bank Clothiers, Inc. has unanimously rejected a non-binding acquisition proposal it received on Nov. 26, 2013, from The Men's Wearhouse, Inc. Assisted by outside financial advisors, the board determined the price of roughly $1.54 billion significantly undervalued the company and its near and long-term potential and was not in the best interest of the company's shareholders.

Charleston, S.C. -- Only two-thirds of Americans are all or almost finished with their holiday shopping as of Dec. 23. Of the 24 retailers surveyed by America’s Research Group and Inmar, only three retained 70% or more of their customer base, with Wal-Mart topping the list at 88.1%, followed closely by Dollar Tree at 80.4%, and Target at 72.1%.

New York – A Dutch arbitration panel has ordered Tiffany & Co. to pay Swatch damages of about $449.5 million plus interest in a breach of contract case dating back to 2011. The dispute stems from Swatch’s claim that Tiffany failed to honor its obligation to develop and sell Swatch watches under the Tiffany name and split the profits.

Los Angeles – Costco and Nordstrom were the number one and two ranked retailers in terms of their return policies, according to a new report from personal finance site GoBankingrates.com. Costco received kudos for having no time limit and full cash or check refunds, while Nordstrom got credit for having no formal return policy or time limit.

Dhaka, Bangladesh – Police in Bangladesh have reportedly filed charges against the owners of a garment factory that was the site of a fatal fire in November 2012 that killed more than 100 workers. Bloomberg reports that Delwar Hossain and his unidentified wife, owners of Tazreen Fashion Ltd, were among 13 people charged with murder and other offenses in connection with the deadly blaze that resulted in 124 deaths.