Supply Chain & Merchandising

National Realty & Development Corp. landed the first anchor for its new project in Middletown, New Jersey, and it’s a whopper.  

Opportunistic acquirers continue retail’s reinvention, making business good for creative management companies

Unusual circumstances are forging the best of times for third-party shopping center managers. Rampant store closings, after-effects of the commercial mortgage backed securities crash, and opportunistic buyers are creating opportunities for innovative managers to reinvent properties for their clients.

Trends offer new opportunities, responsibilities

The next great thing isn’t a piece of tech, an improved process, a branded message, or a fast-changing business model. It’s all this — at once. The fact is the next great thing is retail itself.

Retail lies at the convergence point of some of the most profound changes any business can experience. More, it plays out in front of customers and the rest of the world in real time. Retail brands that quickly harness new ideas by learning the details that make them work well become the winners.

Menswear retailer bullish on Internet of Things, RFID

While most retailers continue to dip their toes in the Internet of Things waters, Thomas Pink has jumped in with both feet — and is seeing results.

The luxury menswear brand is involved in an IoT proof-of-concept test at its store on Wall Street in downtown Manhattan. Using a cloud-based IoT platform from Acuitas Digital, the retailer has the backbone it needs to seamlessly integrate networking, hardware, software and analytics solutions — all necessary pieces to digitize the physical store.

Trending Stores: The Frye Company’s location in Denver took top honors as Store of the Year in the 2017 Shop! store design competition. With a design that celebrates the artisan heritage of Frye, one of the country’s oldest footwear companies, the 2,460-sq.-ft. store has a warm and comfortable vibe, with a modern ski-lodge aesthetic. Local references include a massive working fireplace dressed with stone from local quarries, and rugs woven with American Indian motifs.

Given the success of this year’s Fastest-Growing Acquirers, it’s understandable to think the process seems simple. Well, it’s not as easy as it looks, warned G. Joseph Cosenza, president of Oak Brook, Ill.-based Inland Real Estate Acquisitions. Quality must meet opportunity and yield, he said.

The grocery-anchored center remains as strong an investment as ever, Cosenza said. An Inland fund that’s dominated by grocery-anchored projects (approximately 80%) has 95% occupancy. Supermarket renewals are resulting in rent increases of 10% and higher.

The chairman and CEO of Sears Holdings said the use of the word bankruptcy with regards to his company is holding it back.    “Every time people use the word bankruptcy, somebody who reads that doesn't get past that word, Edward Lampert told The Chicago Tribune in a rare interview. “It makes it very unfair for us, and it’s a very uneven playing field for us.”      

Abercrombie & Fitch may sell itself.   The teen apparel chain on Wednesday confirmed it is in preliminary discussions with several parties regarding a potential transaction with the company.   Abercrombie confirmed the news after Reuters reported that the retailer had hired an investment bank, Perella Weinberg Partners, to field takeover interest from other retailers.