Supply Chain & Merchandising

Chicago -- Urban Retail Properties, LLC, announced the acquisition of Oakland Square and Oakland Plaza in Troy, Michigan, by its parent company RAIT Financial Trust. Purchase price was $50.8 million.

Both properties are adjacent to Oakland Mall, a 1.5-million-sq.-ft. super-regional center that Urban Retail currently manages.

Boise, Idaho - Albertsons and Safeway Inc. announced the new senior leadership team and division leaders  for the combined company that will take effect upon the closing of their proposed merger. The deal is expected to close in a few months.

Safeway president and CEO Robert Edwards will serve as CEO of the combined company and current Albertsons CEO Bob Miller will become executive chairman.

With a name like Loop Integration it was only logical that Amaze and contiigo would choose Chicago as the location for their new joint venture focused on users of SAP’s hybris e-commerce solution.

Shop24 gives new meaning to the phrase “small format” and recently named a new vp of marketing and business development to help grow its footprint.

Raleigh, N.C. -- Northwood Ravin has announced six new service retailers and restaurants for Bradford, the multi-use development in the northeast corner of Davis and High House Roads adjacent to the desirable Preston neighborhood of Cary, North Carolina.

Dublin, Calif. -- dd’s Discounts, a division of Ross Stores, Inc., will open a new store in the California Central Valley on Sept. 27. The store is located in the Shaw Village Shopping Center in Clovis.  

Including this new location, dd’s Discounts will operate approximately 150 locations in 13 states and is on schedule to complete its expansion plan to open approximately 20 locations in 2014.

Seattle -- Nordstrom on Friday opened its first store in Canada, at Chinook Centre in Calgary, Alberta. The two-level, 140,000-sq.-ft. store is also the department store retailer’s first location outside the United States.
 
"Being in business for 113 years, this is really a historic time for us as we open our first store in Canada - our first international store," said Sheila Wooldridge, Nordstrom Chinook Centre store manager.

Undeterred by pet specialty heavyweights PetSmart and Petco, Pet Supermarket just opened its 150th location and has plans for more.

The forty year old Sunrise, Fla.-based company recently opened its 150th location in the central Florida town of Bartow and indicated it plans additional growth while stopping short of providing a specific expansion target. The company’s stores measure about 7,500-sq.-ft. and are currently concentrated in states such as Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Kentucky, California and Nevada.