Mass Merchant

Charlottesville, Va. -- Construction has begun on a new 73-acre, super-regional shopping center, 5th Street Station, in the heart of southern Charlottesville. 5th Street Station brings the first Wegmans store to Central Virginia, along with 335,000 sq. ft. of additional anchor, junior anchor and small-shop opportunities.  

Target may not have been very successful in Canada, but the retailer has an altogether different strategy for the United States, where it will open 15 stores in 2015.

Target says it plans to open more small store formats than suburban big box stores this year.

The Minneapolis-based retailer will bring its smallest store, TargetExpress, which at 20,000 square feet is about a sixth of the size of its traditional big box stores, to two more metropolitan areas this year with one store slated for Chicago and two for the Washington, D.C., area.

Hoffman Estates, Ill. –  As part of a 2014 announcement in which Sears Holdings Corp. said it had entered into lease agreements with European fashion retailer Primark for seven standalone stores in the Northeastern United States, the retailer said that two of these seven locations will be at Danbury Fair in Danbury, Connecticut; and Freehold Raceway Mall in Freehold, New Jersey.  

St. Petersburg, Fla. -- In 2014, The Sembler Co. said it saw increased activity across business segments, from more than 700,000 sq. ft. of new and renewed leases, to expanding the company’s geographical reach.

New York -- Swedish fast-fashion giant Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M) is in full expansion mode. Along with reporting a 17% increase in fiscal 2014 profits, the company said it plans to open 400 stores in 2015, with most of the openings in the United States and China. It will also enter several new markets, including India and South Africa.  

In other news, H&M is launching a new beauty concept, H&M Beauty, with an initial debut in about 900 stores and online, starting in fall 2015.

San Jose, Calif. – Homeowners stuck shoveling out more than two feet of snow were not the only ones in the Northeast negatively impacted by winter storm Juno the week of Jan. 26. Analysis from RetailNext shows that between Monday, Jan. 26 and Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2015, store traffic at Northeast retailers dropped 35.6% from the same three-day period the prior year.

It may be hard to believe (considering its financial troubles), but Sears was the most popular U.S. department store on Facebook during the 2014 holiday shopping season, according to a new study. 

The data also show that Walmart.com was the most popular mass merchant store site.

New York -- Forever 21 will open a five-level store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, taking over the space that formerly housed an H&M.  

The new Forever 21, which is located on Fifth between 51st and 52nd Streets, is scheduled to open on Feb. 7.