Discount Store

Regency Centers, a major player in grocery-anchored centers with 307 properties, and Equity One, owner of 98 retail properties, have signed an agreement to merge. Regency will continue as the surviving public company and, it claims, assume the position as the largest shopping center real estate investment trust.   The combined company is expected to have a total market capitalization of approximately $15.6 billion.   

Macy’s is expanding its off-price concept, Macy’s Backstage, in a pop-up format.   In a test, the department store retailer is placing Backstage pop-ups in 45 existing Macy's stores in time for the holiday shopping season, the Cincinnati Business Journal reported.  

The Butler North component of Butler Enterprises’ massive retail complex in Gainesville, Florida, brings itself close to 100% occupancy with next week’s opening of Total Wine & More.   The 20,000-sq.-ft store is the latest in a series of new store openings at the center. Also debuting there over the past four months were Walmart Supercenter, Aldi, Marshalls, Payless Shoe Source, and Dollar Tree.  

Macy’s has signed an agreement that could lead to more downsizing of its valuable real estate portfolio. It also has entered into deals to sell one of its stores in San Francisco, and one in Portland, Oregon.   

National Realty & Development Corp. has announced that new pad buildings will begin going up at two of its centers in New Jersey.   McDonald’s will enter Liberty Square Center in Burlington with a newly constructed 3,911-sq.-ft. store on one of the property’s outparcels. The 380,383-sq.-ft. Liberty Square is anchored by Walmart Supercenter, Acme, Marshalls, and Toys “R” Us.     

Dollar General is planning to unveil a smaller-store concept designed around convenience.   The new format, reportedly to be called DGX,  is due to open in early 2017, with a unit in downtown Nashville, and another in Raleigh, North Carolina.       

Dollar General is working out details to construct a $91 million distribution center in Orange County, New York.   The chain is eyeing the creation of a 750,000-square-foot distribution hub on a 100-acre site in the town of Florida, N.Y., the Albany Business Review reported.      The building would supply merchandise to 1,000 stores in the Northeast, and could bring more than 500 jobs to the Albany, N.Y., region over the next five years, according to the report.   

Apple’s App Store has been awash in recent weeks with hundreds of fake retail and product apps, the New York Times reported.