Discount Store

Groupon, One Kings Lane and ModCloth have the top-rated mobile apps in the retail industry.   That’s according to a study conducted by Application Resource Center, which analyzed data taken from 1.2 million user reviews posted on the Apple and Google Play app stores for 50 retailers. (The retailers were reviewed represented the retailers with the most mobile app sales in 2015.)  

In what it says is part of an expansion into the western United States, New York-based Time Equities Inc. (TEI) purchased the Newgate Mall in Ogden, Utah from General Growth Properties for $69.5 million.   The 718,035-sq.-ft. mall is anchored by Burlington Coat Factory, Cinemark, Dillard’s, and Sears. TEI reports it is 98% leased with approximately 100 tenants. Bath & Body Works, Kay Jewelers, Gymboree, and Victoria’s Secret are among those on the roster.  

After a long, post-recession lull, leasing activity at shopping centers and strip malls in the Phoenix area is picking up, according to a report in Tempe’s East Valley Tribune.   Local real estate investor Michael Pollack is so bullish on the scene that he said he envisions tenant waiting lists as a possibility for the near future.    “We are in a red-hot market right now,” said Pollack, who invests in financially distressed centers and renovates them. 

There was no stopping TJX Cos. in its second quarter. But it sounded a cautious note about its third quarter.   For the quarter ended July 30, TJX posted a profit of $562.2 million, better than analysts’ forecasts, up from $549.3 million in the year-ago period.   Revenue increased 7% to a better-than-expected $7.88 billion. Same-store sales rose 4%, above expectations for an increase of 2% to 3%.  

Chicago-based Newport Capital Partners purchased a 69,749-sq.-ft. center anchored by Pick ‘n Save the Milwaukee area. Terms of the deal, brokered by Mid-American Real Estate Corp., were not disclosed.    Other tenants in the center at the Intersection of I-41/45 and Mayfair Road in Wauwatosa include Firehouse Subs, Mattress Firm, and Supercuts. The sellers were New York-based DRA Advisors and Atlanta-based RCG Partners.  

Crosslands Shopping Center, a joint development of Tupperware Brands and O’Connor Capital Partners, has been sold for $121 million just two years after opening in Kissimmee, Florida, according to a report in the Orlando Business Sentinel.   The Hampshire Companies, a New Jersey-based real estate firm, announced that it had acquired the center on behalf of an unnamed foreign investor. Crosslands is located within the Osceola Corporate Center, not far from Tupperware headquarters in Orlando.  

Dollar General continues to expand its store portfolio at a rapid pace.   The discounter on Monday opened its 13,000th store, in Birmingham, Alabama. The company operates approximately 675 stores in Alabama.    The new store is one of the planned 900 new stores Dollar General expects to open in 2016.

Nordstrom Rack has announced a fourth location as it makes preparations to drop anchor north of the border.   Nordstrom announced that Nordstrom Rack will open a 35,000-sq.-ft. store at South Edmonton Common in Edmonton, Alberta, in fall 2018.     The property is owned and managed by Cameron Corporation and CREIT.