Mass Merchant

Green Bay, Wis. – Shopko intends to open five  stores under its Shopko Hometown banner in Afton, Wyo., St. Peter, Minn., and Winneconne, Ellsworth and Tomahawk, Wis., in late fall of this year.

The Shopko Hometown format is designed to serve smaller rural communities with the same product assortments available in larger areas and Shopko currently operates more than 180 stores in this format.

Purchase, N.Y. -- Old Colony Square Center in Jersey City, N.J., will look like new by the end of the year. Owner National Realty & Development Corp. will begin renovations to the Pathmark-anchored center this summer.

Richmond, Va. -- Jones Lang LaSalle has closed the sale of phase I of Hancock Village on behalf of Edco in Richmond, Va.’s Chesterfield submarket.

Cole Real Estate Investments purchased the 153,853-sq.-ft. shopping center anchored by Dick’s Sporting Goods and Hobby Lobby. A Walmart Supercenter shadow-anchors the development.

JLL said the center is 100% leased.

Naperville, Ill. – OfficeMax Incorporated and Office Depot Inc. have hired global talent management consulting firm Korn/Ferry International to assist the search for a new CEO for the combined company that will result from the proposed OfficeMax-Office Depot merger.

The search will include both incumbent CEOs Neil Austrian of Office Depot and Ravi Saligram of OfficeMax, as well as external candidates.

Columbus, Ohio -- Glimcher Realty Trust has announced plains to purchase its remaining interest in WestShore Plaza in Tampa, Fla. and to sell its interest in Lloyd Center in Portland, Ore. Glimcher holds a 40% interest in a joint venture with Blackstone Real Estate Partners VI that owns both properties.

Chesapeake, Va. – Dollar Tree has promoted former COO Gary Philbin to the new position of president and COO. Philbin, who has served as COO of Dollar Tree since 2007, spent 30 years in various merchandising and operations executive positions in the grocery vertical before joining Dollar Tree as SVP of Stores in 2001.

Washington, D.C. -- U.S. retailers added almost 28,000 new jobs in May, according to statistics from the Department of Labor. This followed 20,000 new retail hires in April.

Restaurants hired another 38,000 people last month.

New retail and restaurant hires helped drive the addition of 175,000 total new jobs to the U.S. economy in May.