Apparel

Northbrook, Ill. - Pine Tree Commercial Realty LLC has acquired Riverbend Marketplace, a regional shopping center located in Asheville, North Carolina, in partnership with Wanxiang America Real Estate Group. The 142,617-sq.-ft. shopping center is shadow-anchored by Walmart, anchored by Kohl’s and Petsmart, and features 110,715-sq.-ft. of national best-in-class retailers.

Seattle -- REI will open a nearly 30,000-sq.-ft., two-level store in the Village at Westfield Topanga, Woodland Hills, California, in fall 2015.

"REI Topanga will join five other stores in serving more than 352,000 active REI members in the greater Los Angeles area. More than 62,000 active members reside within 15 miles of the new store.

The spiffy new look Walmart store associates are sporting these days is drawing complaints from some quarters who think the company went too far in striving for a modest degree of uniformity in the appearance of employees.

Apparently, it is now too much for Walmart to require employees to dress a certain way while they are at work with the dispute centering on what constitute a uniform versus a dress code and whether Walmart should pay for the clothes employees wear to work.

New York -- L.L. Bean plans to open a 29,000-sq.-ft. store in Mall of America, Bloomington, Minnesota, the Star-Tribune reported. It will be the Freeport, Maine-based retailer’s first ever location west of the Mississippi River.

The store will be an anchor tenant in the mall, taking over a former Bloomingdale’s location, the report said.
 

Tory Burch, an upscale women’s apparel and accessories company, has appointed former Ralph Lauren executive Roger Farah co-CEO, sharing the title with founder and current CEO Tory Burch, who will remain chairperson.

Fort Worth, Texas - Rice Management Company and Trademark Property Company have acquired a three-building, 193,000-sq.-ft. retail property portfolio in Rice Village, today collectively named the Village Arcade. Trademark and Rice plan to completely revitalize the properties by significantly upgrading the merchandising mix, facades and site amenities and considering a rebranding.

Dublin, Calif. - Ross Dress for Less will open two new stores in the California Central Valley on Oct. 11. The stores are located in Bakersfield Plaza in Bakersfield and the Delano Marketplace in Delano.  

These new openings are part of the retailer’s 2014 expansion program, totaling approximately 75 new locations during the year. 

Dodgeville, Wis. - Lands' End Business Outfitters has launched a new online customer shopping experience. The new website provides functionality that lets business customers do everything from seeing how their logo looks on a selected fabric to managing account information and accessing order history.