Consumer Electronics

Retail and restaurant executives, architects, suppliers and other industry professionals involved in store design/planning, construction and facility management gathered together for Chain Store Age’s 53rd annual SPECS conference.

The event, held at the Gaylord Palms in Kissimmee, Fla., focused on the evolution and innovation of physical stores in a digital age, and explored industry trends that are transforming how stores are designed, built, operated and maintained.

Trending Stores: The Frye Company’s location in Denver took top honors as Store of the Year in the 2017 Shop! store design competition. With a design that celebrates the artisan heritage of Frye, one of the country’s oldest footwear companies, the 2,460-sq.-ft. store has a warm and comfortable vibe, with a modern ski-lodge aesthetic. Local references include a massive working fireplace dressed with stone from local quarries, and rugs woven with American Indian motifs.

Five dynamic retail and restaurant brands — Altar’d State, Bentley’s Pet Stuff, MOD Pizza, Sugarfina and Warby Parker — took home the honors as the winners of Chain Store Age’s annual Breakout Retailer Awards.

The awards, selected by CSA’s editorial board and sponsored by Paint Folks, recognize innovative retail and restaurant concepts that are on their way up —brands that have crossed the “newbie” line, and are well positioned for growth, in store, online, or both.

Prestige Development Group is about to break ground on a 171,027-sq.-ft. shopping center in Abilene, Texas.   Nearly 85% of The Shops at Abilene Village are pre-leased by a tenant lineup that includes Burlington, Petco, and Academy Sports + Outdoors. It will be the first store in the Abilene market for Burlington, and Academy is relocating from a 50,000-sq.-ft. location to claim 72,000 sq. ft.in of space at The Shops.  

Joshua Weinkranz

The nation’s capital has been added to the list of cities that will soon feature an Amazon Books store.   The newest Amazon Books location will reside in a 10,000-sq.-ft. space in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C., The Washington Post reported. The store, which was formerly occupied by Barneys New York, will be Amazon’s 13th bookstore.   

Four more and he’ll match his age.   Twenty-four-year old Joel J. Gorjian, a VP at Great Neck, New York-based Namdar Realty Group, has made his 20th retail center purchase in the past 12 months, this time a mall in suburban Chicago.  

Maus, Warwick, Matthews & Company have released the names of the first six tenants for a Walmart-shadowed center in Leland, North Carolina, just outside of Wilmington.   Petsense, Cricket Wireless, Miyabi Junior Express Japanese Hibachi, Complete Coastal Dentistry, Charlie Graingers barbecue, and Ganey, Byrd & Dunn Insurance will be the first to inhabit Westgate Marketplace. The 31,600-sq.-ft. center is 50% leased.