Apparel

CITY OF INDUSTRY, Calif. — Sycamore Partners has agreed to acquire teen retailer Hot Topic for approximately $600 million, or 14 cents per share in cash. The agreement, which has been unanimously approved by Hot Topic’s board of directors, represents a premium of approximately 30% over Hot Topic’s closing stock price on March 6.

Ewing, N.J. -- North Plainfield, N.J.-based Levin Management Corp. said Wednesday that Dollar Tree will open a store at Capitol Plaza, located in Ewing, N.J. The 13,810-sq.-ft. store is slated to open in the spring.
 
As well, a newly expanded Center for Allied Health & Nursing Education will celebrate its grand reopening at Capitol Plaza in March. The nursing school will be renamed Jersey College School of Nursing; it tripled its space to 30,000 sq. ft. in the shopping center, which is leased and managed by Levin.
 

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Hanes has received the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's highly coveted Energy Star Sustained Excellence Award for 2013.  The award is the company's fourth consecutive year of Energy Star recognition and its second consecutive year as a recipient of the Sustained Excellence Award, which is given to a select group of organizations that have exhibited outstanding sustainability leadership year after year.

Virginia Beach, Va. -- Divaris Real Estate announced Wednesday that six new stores totaling 57,434 sq. ft. will open at the company’s Pembroke Mall property, located in Virginia Beach, Va.

New York -- Gap Inc. said Thursday that its February same-store sales rose a better-than-expected 3% for the four weeks ended Feb. 25. Analysts expected a 2% increase.
   
The chain was due to release the sales figures after the market closed, but put them out at midday after they were found in a leaked transcript of prerecorded comments.

By division, same-store sales rose 2% at Gap and 6% at Old Navy. They fell 5% at Banana Republic.

Washington, D.C. -- A report released Tuesday by the National Retail Federation said that spending for St. Patrick’s Day is expected to grow to $4.7 billion, as celebrants invest an average of $35.27 on green attire, St. Patrick’s Day décor and holiday food and drink.

According to NRF’s St. Patrick’s Day Spending Survey conducted by BIGinsight, 84.2% of consumers will celebrate by wearing green. An additional 23.3% will decorate their home or office, and 34.6% will make a special dinner.

DOVER, N.H. — Zander Livingston, CEO of Truecount Corp, an RFID software provider, announced that Truecount is introducing a new Software as a Service (SaaS) pricing and deployment model that places inventory visibility and all other RFID benefits within the reach of any size retailer. 

Torrance, Calif. -- Smack Sportswear, manufacturer of indoor and beach volleyball apparel, announced that its first flagship officially opened its doors on Feb. 23.

The store, in Huntington Beach, Calif., sits inside of the former Huntington Beach Training Center, which has since been renamed the "Smack Center." It houses eight indoor volleyball courts and three Futsal (indoor football) courts. Smack's flagship store offers curb appeal to the thousands of coaches, teams, and visitors to the facility.