Retail

Virginia Beach, Va. — Ingenuity Development has entered into a strategic alliance with a New York Stock Exchange-traded Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) to combine forces on joint venture opportunities for retail and mixed-use projects in the Mid-Atlantic and the Southeast. Ingenuity will also see opportunities to work with its affiliate, Divaris Real Estate, to lease and manage completed projects.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) calculated that retail employment was down 21,600 jobs in January 2014, yet up 230,000 jobs year-over-year. December retail employment figures were revised up to a gain of 57,000 jobs.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation report showed that January total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 113,000, with the unemployment rate at 6.6% and the labor force participation rate at 63%.

San Francisco -- Gap Inc. posted strong sales for January and issued a fourth-quarter profit forecast that topped expectations.

The retailer said its same-store sales rose 1% in January. Analysts had expected a drop of 1.3%. Net sales for the four weeks that ended Feb. 1 were $899 million, compared with net sales of $1.13 billion for the five-week period ended Feb. 2, 2013.

For the fourth quarter, net sales were $4.58 billion, compared with $4.73 billion a year earlier.

Northbrook, Ill. — Pine Tree Commercial realty has appointed Ryan Montes to the post of property manager and asset management coordinator. Montes will manage three Pine Tree assets, while overseeing quarterly asset management meetings and portfolio reporting.

Montes comes to Pine Tree from Miller Capital Advisory’s asset management and reporting group, where he handled reporting and analysis for over 10.4 million sq. ft. of regional and lifestyle shopping centers.

Bebe Stores had a difficult second quarter. The company reported a net loss of $5.5 million, which it said was partly fueled by declining mall traffic and an aggressive promotional environment across the industry.

Net sales declined 4.1% to $130 million, from $135.5 million reported for the second quarter a year ago. Same-store sales decreased 1.9%.

CEO Steve Birkhold acknowledged challenges, but cited sequential improvement in same-store sales and holiday sales, as well.

Woonsocket, R.I. – The Feb. 5 decision by CVS to stop selling cigarettes and other tobacco products by October 2014 reportedly created a large volume of related discussion on social media. According to analysis from social media analysis technology provider Crimson Hexagon, as of 6 p.m. on Feb. 5, there were more than 139,000 total posts on Twitter (92% of the conversation) and public Facebook (8% of the conversation) posts mentioning CVS.

New York -- International sales from U.S. online retailers will jump from $11 billion in 2014 to almost $50 billion by 2020, which would make up 16% of the overall U.S. online retail market, according to a new report by OC&C Strategy Consultants.

Kohl’s January sales were significantly lower than planned as a result of lower traffic and low levels of clearance merchandise.

Comparable-store sales decreased 2%. Combined November and December same-store sales increased 0.8%.