Department Store

St. Petersburg, Florida - The Sembler Company and Forge Capital Partners, in their Forge Real Estate Partners III investment fund, have recently purchased two shopping centers:  Causeway Shopping Center in Indian Harbour Beach, Florida, and Springdale Shopping Center in Austin, Texas.     FREP now owns five shopping centers, and the joint venture is actively seeking additional investments in grocery-anchored shopping centers throughout the Southeast.    

Lakewood, Colorado - Colorado Mills, the largest outlet and value retail shopping destination in the state, in conjunction with the full-priced Denver West Village located on the Colorado Mills campus, is introducing a Dine and Discover program, allowing restaurant goers to Colorado Mills or Denver West Village participating eateries to claim gift cards for continued shopping at some of Colorado Mills’ retail store.  

Mansfield, Connecticut - Charter Realty and Development has leased space at the East Brook Mall in Mansfield, Connecticut, to Dollar Tree. Dollar Tree has taken 9,733 sq. ft. and will be joining anchor tenants Kohl’s, Dress Barn, TJ Maxx, Michael’s, Olympia Sports, Radio Shack, and Applebee’s.   The 151,377-sq.-ft. center has signalized access from Route 195 (Storrs Road) and services 34,000 student, faculty and staff members of the University of Connecticut and Eastern Connecticut State University.

Janesville, Wisconsin - CBL & Associates Properties announced that DICK'S Sporting Goods and ULTA Beauty are coming to Janesville Mall in Janesville, Wisconsin. The two new stores will be situated in the former JC Penney location. Construction is expected to begin in January with the grand opening for both stores scheduled for fall 2015.  

New York - The Brits are no slouches when it comes to holiday advertisements.

The competition between British retail giants to come up with the most compelling TV ad grows more intense every holiday season.

This year, the biggest initial buzz was created by Sainsbury, with its depiction of the famous Christmas truce on the battlefields of World War I.

Brisbane, Calif. - bebe stores announded that Jim Wiggett has been named CEO and appointed to the company’s board of directors, effective immediately. He has been serving as interim chief executive since June 2014.  

Gift cards and clothing top the lists of holiday shoppers this year, according to a new Harris Poll conducted for Macy's.

Online sales at third party marketplaces grew faster than the overall industry, according to cloud-based e-commerce solutions provider ChannelAdvisor.

The digital measurement firm reports that November was a mixed month for e-commerce channels. But Amazon, Google Shopping and Other 3PMs (third party marketplaces) grew materially faster than the 16% e-commerce baseline growth rate comScore had predicted.

Specifically, ChannelAdvisor reports: