Department Store

Northbrook, Ill. - Pine Tree Commercial Realty LLC has acquired Riverbend Marketplace, a regional shopping center located in Asheville, North Carolina, in partnership with Wanxiang America Real Estate Group. The 142,617-sq.-ft. shopping center is shadow-anchored by Walmart, anchored by Kohl’s and Petsmart, and features 110,715-sq.-ft. of national best-in-class retailers.

Indianapolis – Hhgregg plans to hire more than 450 home electronics and home appliances sales associates this holiday season to support its 228 stores. Hhgregg is accepting applications for holiday positions starting Sept. 25, and plans to have all new hires on board and in stores by mid-October.

The retailer is seeking to hire both full-time and part-time associates, and though the positions are immediately needed for the holiday shopping season, all new hires will be considered for ongoing employment.

Hoffman Estates, Ill. – Kmart Corp. will close at least eight stores by the end of 2014 as part of broader cost-cutting moves by parent company Sears Holding Corp. Kmart spokespeople sent emails to media outlets in Michigan, Indiana and Iowa announcing that Kmart will close at least five stores in the Detroit area, two in the Indianapolis area and one in Ames, Iowa.

Hhgregg plans to hire more than 450 home electronics and home appliances salespeople this holiday season to support its 228 stores.

Hudson’s Bay Company has signed a lease with Brookfield Property Partners L.P. to open an 85,000-sq.-ft. Saks Fifth Avenue store in Brookfield Place at 225 Liberty Street and a 55,000-sq.-ft. Saks Off 5th store at One Liberty Plaza in Lower Manhattan.

HBC is also leasing 400,000 sq. ft. of office space, adjacent to the Saks Fifth Avenue store at Brookfield Place. This space will become the home office for the company’s New York City-based corporate associates.

Dublin, Calif. – DD’s Discounts, a division of Ross Stores Inc. will open a new store in Las Vegas on Sept. 27. The store is located in the Winterwood Pavilion.

Including this new location, DD’s Discounts will operate 150 locations in 14 states and is on schedule to complete its expansion plan to open approximately 20 locations in 2014. Together, Ross Dress for Less and DD’s Discounts currently operate over 1,300 off-price apparel and home fashion stores in 33 states, the District of Columbia and Guam.

New York - L.L. Bean provided the best overall customer service in August 2014. This marked the retailer’s fourth time topping Stella Benchmarks in customer service during 2014.

The retailer repeated its top performance from the previous month by ranking among the Top 25 in phone, email, shipping and returns. Nine companies that did not rank in the Top 25 overall for July earned a spot in August: Gap, Marc Jacobs, Burberry, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Motosport, Microsoft, Brooks Brothers and Wayfair.

According to Deloitte’s annual retail holiday sales forecast, steadily improving economic fundamentals should moderately boost holiday sales in stores and online this year.