Supermarket/Grocery

By Scott Klatsky, director of retail leasing, Time Equities, Inc.

New York City is the world’s retail hub — and within the city are major opportunities for retail expansion.

In fact, Time Equities, Inc., has availabilities all over Manhattan — from Greenwich Village/NYU to Midtown to Upper West Side to Tribeca to Financial District ... even Brooklyn Heights.

Fort Myers, Fla. — Sanibel Beach Place, a 72,886-sq.-ft. Publix-anchored shopping center in Fort Myers, Fla., has selected RMC Property Group as the property’s exclusive leasing agent.

Global Realty and Management owns the property.

A kosher deli and Murray’s Cheese shop will be part of a new 72,000-sq.-ft. Ralph’s Fresh Fare supermarket set to open on Thursday, April 10 in the Los Angeles suburb of Sherman Oaks.

ECRM compared retail circular advertising in March 2013 versus March 2014 and noted trends occurring across top retail chains. H.E.B. and Publix topped the charts in circular page change, with increases of 27.8% and 41.2%, respectively. The massive increase at Publix was attributable to the release of an additional circular this March (five versus four in 2013), while H.E.B. simply ran more pages in each of its five March circulars (eight to 12 pages each this year, as opposed to six to eight last year).

Seattle — AmazonFresh recently launched a new tool called the Amazon Dash that allows users to scan items or speak the items aloud as part of a new way to shop for groceries without having to go into the store or shop online.

Mumbai, India – Leading Indian political party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said in its official election manifesto that it will ban all foreign direct investment into the Indian supermarket sector if it wins a majority stake in the upcoming parliamentary election. BJP is widely expected to take majority control of parliament and the prime minister seat in India’s May 2014 elections.

AmazonFresh recently launched a new tool called the Amazon Dash that allows users to scan items or speak the items aloud as part of a new way to shop for groceries without having to go into the store or shop online. 

"Every member of the family can use Dash to easily add items to your AmazonFresh shopping list," AmazonFresh announced. "Keep it on your kitchen counter or hang it on the refrigerator. Did your kids just eat the last of the cereal? Conveniently refill and restock your home's everyday essentials, and have fun doing it."

Sylmar, Calif. – A new Vallarta Supermarkets store opens in Hesperia, Calif., on April 9. The 42,000-sq.-ft. location will offer specialty departments including a bakery, full-service meat counter, fresh produce, a hot food deli (Taqueria) with in-store dining, a shuttle service and a customer service department that offers check cashing, money transfers and utility bill payments.

Fredericton, Canada -- Plaza Retail REIT plans six new Canadian retail projects: four new re-developments and two new ground-up development projects. Four projects are located in Quebec, one in Atlantic Canada and one in Ontario.

In all, Plaza will be investing approximately $24 million for its share of these six new projects and will add approximately 155,000-sq.-ft. to its portfolio of retail properties (at Plaza's ownership percentage). The Ontario project and three Quebec projects are being developed with joint venture partners.

Cary, N.C. -- The board of directors of The Pantry Inc. has elected Thomas W. "Tad" Dickson, former chairman and CEO of Harris Teeter Supermarkets Inc., to serve as chairman of the board of directors. He replaces Edwin J. Holman, who was chairman of the board since September 2009.