Apparel

New York -- J.C. Penney Co. on Monday reassured investors that sales trends are improving and reaffirmed its forecast calling for positive same-store sales results in the third quarter, Reuters reported.

The comments were made by Myron Ullman, Penney’s CEO, at the Women's Wear Daily conference on Monday.

Toronto -- Hudson’s Bay Company has appointed Michael Crotty as executive VP, chief marketing officer, Hudson’s Bay and Lord & Taylor. He will be responsible for the overall marketing strategy for Hudson’s Bay and Lord & Taylor.

Crotty has more than 25 years multichannel retailing and brand management marketing experience  For the last 10 years, he has held progressively senior positions at Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus and, most recently, Nordstrom.

New York -- Fountain Capital and Cheney & Mathes Properties have announced through their partnership, Fountain Mathes I, that they have acquired a 450,000-sq.-ft. portfolio of retail shopping centers with 16 properties in 10 states. Each center is shadow-anchored by Wal-Mart projects.

The centers largely contain national credit tenants such as AT&T, Cato, Dollar Tree, GameStop, Hibbett Sports, Payless and Shoe Show. The portfolio is 95% occupied.

Dallas — SRS Real Estate Partners’ southeast investment sales team has closed five retail shopping center sales since August. The transactions total more than $60 million and over 575,000 sq. ft. of retail real estate. Here are the details:

New Hyde Park, N.Y. — Kimco Realty Corp. has announced a purchase and sale agreement to acquire a 24-property retail portfolio in New England for $270 million, which includes the assumption of $121.5 million of mortgage debt.

The 1.4-million-sq.-ft. portfolio is 96% occupied. It includes 17 properties in the Boston metropolitan market. Anchor tenants include Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Lowes, Kohl’s, Petco, Pier 1 Imports, Aldi Supermarket, CVS and Walgreens.

Davenport, Iowa -- Von Maur Department Stores has opened its first location in the Northeast. The Midwest retailer opened a 140,000-sq.-ft. store at Eastview Mall in Victor, N.Y., which is just outside of Rochester.

New York – J. Crew Group., Inc. is reporting several strong preliminary results to date for its third quarter of fiscal 2013. Through Oct. 5, 2013, J. Crew reports revenues increased $42.9 million, or 11.3%, to $422.3 million from $379.4 million last year.

New York -- Chinos Intermediate Holdings A, Inc., the indirect parent company of J. Crew Group, Inc., intends to issue $500 million of senior PIK toggle notes due 2019. The notes will be offered and will be sold in a private placement to qualified institutional buyers in the U.S, pursuant to Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and to non-U.S. persons in transactions outside the U.S. pursuant to Regulation S under the Securities Act.   

Regional department store retailer Von Maur isn’t so regional anymore following the opening of its first store in New York.