Department Store

Manchester, Conn. — Bob’s Discount Furniture has signed a definitive agreement to sell a majority stake of its business to Bain Capital for an undisclosed amount. Bob's management team will continue to own a "significant stake" after the deal and will remain involved in operations, according to the company, which has been majority owned by private equity firm KarpReilly/Apax for the past nine years.

Chicago, Ill. — Forman Mills, an off price apparel retailer, has leased 38,487 sq. ft. at Grand Plaza in Franklin Park, Ill., according to CBRE, the leasing agent. The new store plans to open next spring.

The Forman Mills lease completes the lease up of a 96,260-sq.-ft. former Kmart, which closed in 2011.  

CBRE began leasing the space in 2012. The first lease was with Big Lots for 29,000 sq. ft. Next came a 29,000-sq.-ft.- lease to Savers Thrift Superstore, which later took another 29,000 sq. ft.

North Plainfield, N.J. — Mattress Warehouse has leased a 21,404-sq.-ft. space at Crossroads Place in Falls Church, Va., according to Levin Management (www.levinmgt.com), the leasing and management agent for the 336,248-sq.-ft. shopping center. The lease signing brings retail occupancy at the center to 100%. JBG Rosenfeld Retail served as the tenant’s broker in the transaction. Plans call for the new store to open in March.

New York -- Zappos took the top spot in a ranking of fastest holiday shippers according to a study by Kurt Salmon and StellaService. The study analyzed shipping times for orders placed on Cyber Monday from more than 50 retailers across a broad range of retail sectors, from big boxes to online-only players. It found that retailers in the top-five delivered multi-unit orders in an average of 2.9 days.

The top five companies for holiday shipping are the following:

New York – Eight of the 25 largest retailers (32%, or roughly one-in-three) failed to deliver at least one package ordered on the cutoff date to arrive before Christmas via standard shipping in a study performed by StellaService. The study involved placing three orders, one each in the East, West and Midwest regions, from each retailer.

Of 75 total orders, 12% missed the delivery estimate. All but one of these orders were shipped using UPS, which is the preferred carrier for most of the top 25 retailers. Some retailer-specific results include:

New York -- Weekly sales rose by 1.4% for the week ending Dec. 21, 2013. According to figures from the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and the Goldman Sachs Weekly Chain Store Sales Index, on a year-over-year basis, the pace of sales also improved and grew by 2.7%.

For December, ICSC Research expects monthly sales will increase between 3% and 4% as the promotional environment continues to be intense.

Reston, Va. -- Several retail subcategories were among the top-gaining in November as Thanksgiving kicked off the holiday shopping season. According to comScore Media Metrix analysis of U.S., desktop activity in November 2013, the retail categories of toys, consumer electronics, jewelry/luxury goods/accessories, department stores, mall, and fragrances/cosmetics all were among the top 10 gaining desktop site categories in November.

Atlanta – A surge in last-minute online holiday shopping reportedly caused retailers including Amazon, Kohl’s and Wal-Mart to miss some deliveries scheduled to arrive before Christmas (Dec. 25). According to the Wall Street Journal, UPS had more than the anticipated 7.75 million packages enter its air network on Monday, Dec. 23.