Retail

Virginia Beach, Va. — Lowe’s Home Center has sold a 13.5-acre property to a private developer based in Virginia Beach for $9 million. Divaris Real Estate represented the seller, Lowe’s, in the transaction. Located one mile north of The Town Center of Virginia Beach, was once a neighborhood grocery-anchored shopping center. Lowe’s Home Center purchased the property in 2007, clearing and preparing it for future development. The new buyer plans to build another shopping center or mixed-use development on the site.

Aston, Pa. -- Hastings Entertainment, a 136-unit multimedia entertainment retail chain, has signed an agreement for Actions Services Group to provide interior lighting maintenance to locations in the states of Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming.

Philadelphia – Urban Outfitters reported substantial gains in net sales for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2014. Total company sales in the quarter increased 6% to $906 million, less than Wall Street expected, from $856.8 million in the year-ago period.

Same-store retail segment net sales, which include the direct-to-consumer channel, increased 1%. Same-store retail segment net sales increased 20% at Free People and 10% at Anthropologie and decreased 9% at Urban Outfitters. Wholesale segment net sales rose 24%.

Helen Bryan has become the second author in the Amazon Publishing stable of writers to surpass 1 million copies in combined print, audio and Kindle editions.

Bryan, author of historical novels "War Brides" (2012) and "The Sisterhood" (2013), follows Amazon Publishing author Oliver Pötzsch over the 1 million threshold.

Washington, D.C. – The National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force, a combined effort of the FBI, Secret Service, intelligence agencies, and the Department of Homeland Security, has released a report stating there is no evidence that recent data breaches in the computer networks of U.S., retailers are a deliberate attack on the U.S., economy.

Stater Bros. has named Michael Reed as the company’s senior director of real estate.

"We have great confidence that Michael will do an outstanding job of leading our real estate division," said chairman and CEO Jack H. Brown. "His management and real estate expertise will help Stater Bros. meet our present and future real estate needs."

Washington, D.C. -- Import volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to drop 8.4% in February from the same time last year as the shipping cycle reaches its slowest month of the year, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.

Continued positive sales momentum in its business and an increase in foot traffic increase at its stores fueled 99 Cents Only Stores’ third-quarter results.

The company's net sales increased 11% to $487.9 million from $439.5 million for the prior-year quarter. Same-store sales increased 3%.