Mass Merchant

Although it’s only one of many tax proposals being floating around, the so-called border adjustment tax has raised a red flag among many retailers.    The CEO of Target Corp., Brian Cornell, recently visited Washington to lobby against the House Republican proposal, according to Fortune, which noted the visit was first reported by Politico.  

Nordstrom Rack is bullish on Chicago.    The retailer announced plans to open a store at Mellody Farm in Vernon Hills, Ill. The property, which is being developed by Regency Centers, is located 30 miles north of downtown Chicago.   The approximately 30,000-sq.-ft. store, scheduled to open in fall 2018, will be the 15th Rack store in Chicagoland following the announcement of new locations in Kildeer, Ill., and Schererville, Ind., which are opening this spring.   

Washington Prime Group has announced a $33 million renovation plan of Pearlridge Center in Aiea, Hawaii, near Pearl Harbor. The 1.2 million-sq.-ft. property is the largest retail center in the state, consisting of Uptown and Downtown complexes joined by a monorail.  

The CEO of Lane Bryant has stepped down just four months after receiving a big promotion.      Linda Heasley has resigned as chief executive of plus-sized apparel retailers Lane Bryant and Catherines, which are owned by Ascena Retail, The New York Post reported. Heasley was appointed CEO of Lane Bryant in 2013, after a successful six year stint as chief executive of The Limited. She was given the additional title of CEO of Catherines this past October as part of a company reorganization.    

Every year after the holidays the same topics seem to dominate media coverage of the retail industry. The numbers are in, who’s closing stores? Who’s going out of business? Who are this year’s casualties in the great Clicks vs. Bricks War? This focus on post-holiday attrition is part of a larger conversation about the future of retail, one often tinged by notes of panic, dire predictions, and dramatic pronouncements such as: Online retail is damaging brick-and-mortar. Malls are dead! Retailers are shuttering hundreds of stores! 

Schostak Brothers has added six multi-tenant properties to its “Shadow Walmart” portfolio of retail space adjoining supercenters, bringing it to a total of 67. The new additions are located in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.   “In the last decade, we have pursued an aggressive growth strategy in order to assemble one of the largest Walmart Supercenter shadow-anchored shopping center portfolios in the United States,” said Schostak COO Warren Strietzel.  

A combination of factors, including innovation, cross-border deal interest and the availability of cash reserves, bodes well for deal activity in the retail and consumer markets.   That’s according to a review by PwC, which reported that the retail and consumer deals market ended 2016 with an increase in deal volume and a decline in deal value when compared to 2015.   

Walmart made sweeping changes to its e-commerce organization for the second time since it acquired online retailer Jet.com and appointed company founder Marc Lore as head of its own e-commerce division. The latest move, announced in a memo to Walmart associates on Jan. 13, further consolidates the retail giant’s online properties, and strengthens Lore’s influence on the chain’s digital strategy as it faces-off with Amazon.