Department Store

Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania — Wolfson Group will launch a redevelopment of Hilltown Crossings, a community shopping center with a gross leasable area of 354,458 sq. ft., located on Route 309 at Orvilla Road in Hatfield, Pennsylvania.

Monroe, Mich. -- La-Z-Boy Inc. announced the promotion of Daniel King to president of the company's retail Segment. He has served as VP of La-Z-Boy's retail operations since July of 2011.

In his new role as President, King will be responsible for all facets of the company-owned La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries stores, including sales, store operations, training and merchandising functions. The company owns 101 of the 315 stores and, in fiscal 2014 the segment recorded approximately $300 million in sales.

Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania —The newly redeveloped MacDade Mall – located at 2600 MacDade Boulevard in Holmes, Pennsylvania – has attracted two new junior anchors: Marshalls, which opened in August 2013, and Ross, which will hold its grand opening this month.

Columbus, Ohio — Glimcher Realty Trust has appointed Kenneth Marshall to the role of VP, Development. In this position, Marshall will support the company’s development strategy, contributing to the leadership and implementation of redevelopment projects throughout the portfolio.

Prior to joining Glimcher, Marshall served as executive VP of the Commercial Division of Colonial Properties Trust (now MAA). In addition, he has served as VP and Regional Development Director for The Westfield Corp.

New York -- Ron Johnson, who has been keeping a low profile since he was ousted from J.C. Penney in April 2013, made a rare guest appearance at Stanford University. Johnson, a graduate of Stanford and a member of its board, was a guest speaker at the university's View From the Top series in May, where he discussed with Stanford Graduate School of Business students Penny, Apple and Target and the lessons learned over his career in retail.

Sears and Kmart are expanding free store pickup to more than 2,000 locations. The online/in-store collaboration will allow customers to pick up sears.com or kmart.com orders at any Sears or Kmart store and orders will be ready in five minutes or less.

There have been more than a few headline-grabbing leadership transitions in the retail world recently. And, to be honest, “transitions” might be too gentle of a euphemism: some big names from some big-name brands have left, been fired, forced out, voted off the board, or otherwise pressured to step down in the last few months.

Having passed the calendar’s mid-point, we thought it would be interesting to take a look at the most viewed stories of the year to date on Chainstoreage.com.