Department Store

Brian Cornell,  chairman and CEO of Target Corp., and Mindy Grossman, CEO and director of HSN,  are among the headliners at  Shoptalk 2017, the nex-gen retail and e-commerce event.   Also on the bill: Devin Wenig, president and CEO of eBay.  

American Apparel Inc. reportedly is preparing to file for its second bankruptcy just nine months after it emerged from its first one.     According to Bloomberg, the beleaguered retailer, whose sales continue to slide, could file as early as in the next few weeks.  

Starwood Retail Partners’ $100 million renovation of The Shops at Willow Bend in Plano, Texas, will add genuine life to its re-imagined entertainment component. North Texas Performing Arts and its Plano Children’s Theatre will make its new headquarters in a 23,000-sq.-ft. space at the mall, which is also getting eight chef-driven restaurants and a 30,000-sq.-ft. fitness center.

A big mall developer thinks Aerospostale still has plenty of life left in it.   Simon Property Group, along with General Growth Properties and several other companies, bought the failing chain out of bankruptcy in September.  Speaking to a group of investors last week,  CEO David Simon expressed confidence in Aeropostale’s ability to regain momentum.  

Modell’s Sporting Goods is opening a flagship on the site of a former rival.   Modell’s will open a two-level, 20,000-sq.-ft. store on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, in a site formerly occupied by Sports Authority. The opening is slated for mid-November.    The store will become Modell’s flagship store in Manhattan, said William Rudin, CEO of property manager Rudin Management Company, in a release.  

PREIT’s stated strategic shift to pack its portfolio with more relevant anchors is moving ahead at full steam.   At its Cumberland Mall in New Jersey this month, Dick’s Sporting Goods opened in a 50,000-sq.-ft. space vacated by J.C. Penney. In December, another former Penney’s space will debut as a Round One Entertainment location, and being readied for 2017 openings at other PREIT malls are Home Goods and Field & Stream stores, a Whole Foods Market, and a Legoland Discovery Center.  

Town Center Plaza, an 82,000-sq.-ft. center in Palm Desert, California, near Joshua Tree National Park, has been acquired by Citivest Commercial Investments for $19.8 million.   Constructed in 1993, the center’s tenants include Trader Joe’s, Michael’s, Fisherman’s Market and Grill, and Tuesday Morning. Colliers International brokered the deal on behalf of the seller, Town Center Plaza LP.  

Boohoo.com, the England-based, low-priced fashion Web retailer, will be opening its first brick-and-mortar store in Manhattan’s Union Square neighborhood.   An opening date has not been set, but Cushman & Wakefield reported it has secured the retailer a lease for a 2,000-sq.-ft. space at 3 West 13th Street.