Department Store

Santa Monica, Calif. -- Privately held European women’s apparel retailer, Desigual, said it has leased nearly 6,400 sq. ft. on the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica from landlord Promenade Gateway, an affiliate of Maxxam Enterprises.

The store will serve as Desigual’s flagship West Coast location. The retailer currently has more than 170 retail locations and approximately 450 shop-in-shops in major department stores across Europe and Asia.

Dallas -- X Team International, an international alliance of retail real estate advisors, said Tuesday that Venture Commercial, through its Venturetainment division, assisted with site-selection efforts and completed two leases for global visitor attraction operator Merlin Entertainments Group to bring two of its iconic attraction brands to the Texas market for the first time.

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. -- The TJX Companies announced that its board of directors approved a new management structure as part of the company’s ongoing leadership succession planning. Carol Meyrowitz continues as CEO as well as a director of The TJX Companies and has entered into another two-year employment agreement. Ernie Herrman has been promoted to president of The TJX Companies from his post of senior EVP, group president.

Meyrowitz will now have Herrman and Jeffrey Naylor, senior EVP, chief financial and administrative officer, reporting to her.

New York City -- A report released Monday by Bloomberg said that J. Crew Group’s $10 million settlement of an investor lawsuit over the proposed takeover by private-equity firms TPG Capital and Leonard Green & Partners LP has fallen apart.

Citing a lawyer for the shareholders, the report said that J. Crew officials undermined a deal in which the clothier agreed to extend the period to solicit competing offers to the $3 billion buyout bid. The accord also included a $10 million payment to plaintiffs.

A lack of disclosure among retailers regarding their online operations makes it challenging to understand what went on online this past holiday season. While comScore reported it was a record year from a sales perspective with November and December sales advancing 12% to $32.6 billion, data from the online measurement firm also showed that most major retailers saw fewer unique visitors to their websites in December 2010 than during the same month the prior year.

Target took the 21st spot out of a list of 46 retailers ranked for their customer service. Zappos.com took the top spot followed by Amazon.com and LL Bean. Walmart was ranked 27.

Other retailers in the top ten include Overstock.com (4), JCPenney (6) and Kohl's (7).

Interesting data points emerged this week that offer potential insight into Walmart’s holiday sales, as Kantar Retail and comScore released reports showing that when compared with the prior year Walmart was less of a destination for gifts and its Web traffic had declined.

Houston -- Men's Wearhouse said its president and COO, Douglas Ewert, will replace company founder George Zimmer as CEO in mid-2011.

Zimmer, 62, who founded Men's Wearhouse in 1973, will remain executive chairman of the board. The company said he would help Ewert with "strategic direction" for Men's Wearhouse and keep a hand in marketing decisions.