Convenience Stores

New York -- Fountain Capital and Cheney & Mathes Properties have announced through their partnership, Fountain Mathes I, that they have acquired a 450,000-sq.-ft. portfolio of retail shopping centers with 16 properties in 10 states. Each center is shadow-anchored by Wal-Mart projects.

The centers largely contain national credit tenants such as AT&T, Cato, Dollar Tree, GameStop, Hibbett Sports, Payless and Shoe Show. The portfolio is 95% occupied.

New Hyde Park, N.Y. — Kimco Realty Corp. has announced a purchase and sale agreement to acquire a 24-property retail portfolio in New England for $270 million, which includes the assumption of $121.5 million of mortgage debt.

The 1.4-million-sq.-ft. portfolio is 96% occupied. It includes 17 properties in the Boston metropolitan market. Anchor tenants include Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Lowes, Kohl’s, Petco, Pier 1 Imports, Aldi Supermarket, CVS and Walgreens.

Grand Rapids, Mich. -- Meijer announced that it is now operating one of the largest all-clean diesel fleets in North America. As part of its ongoing green initiatives, the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based retailer's fleet utilized innovative technology to improve fuel efficiency and reduce its carbon footprint by nearly 60% since it first began implementing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's 2010 near-zero emissions standards three years ago.

Winston-Salem, N.C. — Krispy Kreme has announced the grand opening of a new Doughnut Factory in Doraville, Ga., for Oct. 29. The first 100 guests in line will receive free doughnuts for a year and commemorative T-shirts. The newly constructed, freestanding 2,300-sq.-ft. store includes a drive-through.

Today, Krispy Kreme operates more than 785 locations in 22 countries around the world.

Woodland Hills, Calif. — GrowLife has announced the opening of its seventh store in Santa Rosa, Calif., on Oct. 25.

GrowLife Hydroponics operates in the legal cannabis industry with online and brick-and-mortar stores.

Boston -- For the second year in a row, Dollar General came out on top in Kantar Retail’s opening price point (OPP) survey, narrowly beating out Walmart Supercenter. The OPP survey, now in its third year, determines how select retailers meet the grocery and consumable needs of shoppers looking for the lowest shelf prices to fulfill their basket requirements.

Julie Gardner, former chief marketing officer at Kohl’s, is the newest board of Cardtronics, the world’s largest retail ATM owner.

Cardtronics operates a vast network of more than 80,000 ATMs at locations throughout the United States and internationally.

Gardner spent 14 years at Kohl’s and most recently served as EVP and chief marketing officer. Prior to Kohl’s, Gardner was with the Eckerd Corp., a regional drug store chain that was eventually acquired by CVS.

Phoenix — The metropolitan Phoenix retail market ended the third quarter with a retail vacancy rate at 10.5%, down nearly a full point from 11.3% a year ago, according to CBRE’s Phoenix Retail MarketView report for the third quarter.

The market recorded positive absorption of 385,625 sq. ft. for the quarter and so far this year has absorbed 1.1 million sq. ft.