Department Store

Oakbrook, Ill. -- InvenTrust Properties Corp. announced a series of appointments to its senior management team. The new appointments, effective immediately, are as follows:

· James Christensen has been named senior VP of asset management.
 
· Chris Dykstra has been named senior VP of property management.
 
· Nicole Horne has been named VP of transactions.
 

Charlotte, N.C. – Family-owned Belk Inc., which hired Goldman Sachs in April to explore “strategic alternatives,” may have landed on a high-end shopping list. According to Reuters, New York-based equity firm Sycamore Partners may be considering bidding $3 billion to $3.5 billion for Belk.

Belk operates about 300 stores and averages about $4 billion in annual sales. In the first quarter of fiscal 2015, Belk reported earnings of $21.8 million and sales of $958 million, both of which were year-over-year improvements.

Just as the agora in Ancient Greece was the central meeting place where the community could come together to purchase goods from the market, connect with their friends and learn about the latest news, so too are today’s modern shopping centers a place that connects local residents. Today, by leveraging their structure and location, shopping centers can go one step further to affect positive change in their local communities and the nation at large by back to make local residents’ lives better.

London - McArthurGlen Group, an owner, developer and manager of European designer outlets, is opening its first North American location on July 9, in Vancouver. McArthurGlen Vancouver Airport is designed in an open-air village style, with a luxury piazza and tree-lined streets.

On opening, the center will offer 240,000-sq.-ft. of retail space with 50 new stores, featuring Armani, Coach, J Crew, Hugo Boss, Ports 1961, Tommy Hilfiger and Polo Ralph Lauren, with more brands to come before the end of 2015.

Chicago -- Englewood Construction has finished a 55,000-sq.-ft. ground-up Hobby Lobby store on an outlet pad at Seabrook Crossings, a new retail development in Seabrook, N.H.   

In Franklin, Tenn., Englewood recently completed an American Girl store, located in the CoolSprings Galleria mall just outside of Nashville. The store is the 12th Englewood has completed for American Girl. The architect for the project was Morristown, N.J.-based Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.
 
 

Hoffman Estates, Ill. – Sears Holding Corp. has met financial expectations for its new real estate investment trust (REIT) called Seritage Growth Properties. A 53.3 million-share Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) subscription rights offering for Seritage that closed on July 2 was oversubscribed and generated about $1.6 billion, meeting expectations for gross proceeds of $1.57 billion.

A harried mother in the baking aisle can’t find lemongrass spice. A teenager in the junior department can’t decide which T-shirt to buy. A family in sporting goods is disappointed that the tent for their camping trip appears to be out of stock.

West Chester, Pa. – QVC has appointed Sanjay Singh as senior VP to lead its newly formed business planning & analysis (BP&A) group. Singh will be responsible for developing financial insights and driving integrated global business and financial planning across markets and functions.