Apparel

Chicago — Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th, Old Navy and Carter’s have inked leases for space at The Mayfair Collection, a 270,000-sq.-ft. shopping center in Wauwatosa, Wis. Nordstrom Rack, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Ulta Beauty have also made lease commitments to the project.

HSA Commercial Real Estate, the developer, broke ground on the project in April. HSA Commercial is adaptively repurposing an obsolete warehouse development into The Mayfair Collection retail shopping center.

Weehawken, N.J. — The Swatch Group Ltd. has announced the expansion of its Tourbillon Boutique network into Seattle, Dallas and Las Vegas.

The Seattle location, in the Fairmont Olympic Hotel, features The Swatch Group Service Center. In Dallas, Tourbillon Boutique will open its first Texas location at NorthPark Center. In Las Vegas, the boutique will relocate to a 3,800-sq.-ft. space in The Shops at Crystals.

New York -- J.C. Penney Co. announced that activist investor and hedge fund manager Bill Ackman has resigned from the board of directors of the company, effective Aug. 12. His resignation comes in the wake of a very public and heated campaign in which he called for the ouster of Penney interim CEO Myron Ullman and chairman Thomas Engibous.

RIVER GROVE, Ill. — Follett Corporation has named former Dick’s Sporting Goods executive Don Germano as president and chief operating officer of the Follett Higher Education Group. He replaces Tom Christopher, who announced plans to retire, effective August 30.

Christopher was president and chief operating officer of the Follett Higher Education Group for nearly 12 years.

LOS ANGELES — Specialty sporting goods retailer Sport Chalet is touting its services and assorted selection of brands to runners. 

The retailer is reminding runners that it offers “extensive online show advice” to accurately fit athletes with the correct running shoe, not to mention a selection of brands which include Adidas, Asics, Brooks, New Balance, Nike, Reebok and Saucony. The retailer also offers custom in-store gait assessments.

NEW YORK — Gilt, an online shopping website, has appointed Tracey Weber as chief operating officer, effective September 3. Weber joins Gilt from Citibank, where she was the managing director, North America Internet and mobile and global product.  

In her role as chief operating officer, Weber will have responsibility for many of Gilt's operations, including Gilt City, international, customer service and merchandise planning; she will also oversee several new strategic initiatives. Weber will report directly to CEO Michelle Peluso.

WASHINGTON — Retailers had sales gains in many back-to-school categories like clothing and sporting goods but experienced surprising declines in home-based categories, including building materials and furniture stores, according to the National Retail Federation. 

The world’s largest retail trade association found that July retail sales — excluding automobiles, gas stations and restaurants — increased 0.3% seasonally, adjusted from June and increased 5% unadjusted year-over-year.

New York -- Activist investor Bill Ackman of Pershing Square Capital Management plans to abandon his push for a quick replacement to J. C. Penney CEO Mike Ullman, according to the New York Post. The report says that it now appears that Penney will proceed with a more deliberately paced search for a replacement for Myron Ullman, who assumed the role of interim CEO in April in the wake of Ron Johnson's firing.   

Denver -- Thirty-one percent of survey respondents said they won't be shopping for any back-to-school products at all, up from 27.7% last year, according to research published by The Integer Group. The results were in the latest issue of “The Checkout, an ongoing shopper behavior study conducted by Integer and M/A/R/C Research.

With fewer people shopping, certain channels will see a drop in traffic. Integer predicts that mass, clothing, and drug will take the largest hit, losing 2.3%, 3.2%, and 5.5% of shoppers this year compared to last.

New York -- Brooks Brothers has named Vivien Kronengold as the company’s executive VP and chief marketing officer, a newly created position. The company also appointed Mauro Calderan as COO. Calderon previously served as senior VP, distribution and logistics.

The appointments come less than a week after Brooks Brothers president and COO Diane Ellis was named CEO at the Limited.