Apparel

Virginia Beach, Va. -- Divaris Real Estate has represented the landlords in the renewal of five leases covering more than 18,500 sq. ft. in Hampton Roads, Va., retail properties.

Two of the leases were with Willow Oaks Associates, landlord of Willow Oaks Village Square Shopping Center in Hampton. The City of Hampton renewed a 7,778-sq.-ft. space, and Virginia ABC renewed its 3,300-sq.-ft. lease.

Mattress Firm renewed for 3,982 sq. ft. with JLP Chesapeake, owner of the Crossways Shopping Center in Chesapeake.

Miami, Fla. -- Famous Footwear has renewed its 8,000-sq.-ft. lease at Kendall Village Center in Miami, Fla., according to Berkowitz Development Group www.berkowitzdevelopment.com. The transaction maintains the 95% occupancy level at the 426,000-sq.-ft. open-air shopping and office destination. Retail space totals 276,000 sq. ft.

Major tenants include the Regal 16-plex Stadium Seating Theater, Old Navy, Gap, Nova Southeastern University, Pier 1 Imports and LA Fitness.

New York -- Real estate investment trust W.P. Carey has acquired a Hennes & Mauritz logistics center in Poznan, Poland.

W.P. Carey, through one of its affiliates, purchased the 896,911-sq.-ft. facility for $85 million.

The center, which supplies all of H&M’s Eastern European stores as well as serves as its primary European e-commerce logistics hub, will be leased back to H&M.

NEW YORK — Kellwood Company, a leading apparel manufacturer and marketer, has appointed Lynn Shanahan to the newly created role of CEO of Kellwood Brands. 

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — While competitors are in the midst of promoting back-to-school offers, Walmart is touting its familiar everyday low prices message and promising its customers gimmick-free pricing all season long. 

Los Gatos, Calif. -- French manufacturer, distributor and retailer of high-end women’s lingerie and ready-to-wear apparel Aubade has selected Centric Software as its product lifecycle management (PLM) software provider.

New York -- Fashion designer and retailer Kenneth Cole is partnering with the Tony Award-winning musical Kinky Boots on the launch of a limited-edition capsule shoe collection arriving in stores for the holiday season.

To promote the launch, a designated area in front of the Al Hirschfeld Theatre (302 West 45th Street in Manhattan) will encourage passersby to try and win a pair of Kinky Boots tickets by following @kennethcoleprd and @kinkybootsbway and Instagraming a photo of their "kinky" shoes using #KCKinkyboots.

San Francisco – Gap Inc. substantially improved upon its June 2012 same-store sales performance and beat analyst expectation with a 7% increase in same-store sales last month. In comparison, the retailer’s same-store sales were flat in June of last year and were only expected to rise 4.7% in June of this year, according to estimates from Retail Metrics.

Sales at Gap’s Old Navy helped drive the overall increase. Same-store sales at Old Navy rose 13% in June as a result of seasonal summer promotions.

NEW YORK — Multichannel retailer Delia's, which primarily markets its brand to teenage girls, has appointed Whitney Randall as the company's VP and general merchandise manager, following the company's May/June financial results.

Total U.S. Shopper Traffic in Retail Stores and Malls for June 2013

Shopper activity slightly decreased last month, thus returning to seasonal standards after May holidays. Retail foot traffic decreased 1.3% in June compared to May 2013, a slight departure from recently reported positive month-over-month retail trends. However, foot traffic for June 2013 was relatively flat compared to the same month in 2012 — with an increase of 0.3%.