Real Estate Roundup: September update
September had its fair share of retail real estate development news, tenant updates, property acquisitions and more.
Here are some of the biggest real estate news stories from the month as reported by Chain Store Age (starting with the most recent).
•Placer.ai: Barnes & Noble visits surge past 2019 levels New data from Placer.ai shows visits to Barnes & Noble now sit 33.6% above 2019 levels, as of the second quarter of this year, while the wider bookstore category has seen visits increase 16.5%. After dropping in 2020, visits reached pre-pandemic levels in the fourth quarter of 2023 and have only continued to increase.
•NYC’s Queens Center adds new restaurants and remodeled stores Soft Swerve, Tony’s Tacos and Noches De Colombia have recently opened at Queens Center, which will also soon unveil remodeled locations for Sephora, Adidas and Windsor. Additional retailer renovations are also underway at Garage and JD Sports, according to the mall’s owner, Macerich.
•First Look: Three-level, 'shared reality' entertainment venue Cosm opens in Detroit “Shared reality” event venue Cosm Detroit officially opened to the public on Sept. 10, offering visitors a three-level viewing experience that features Cosm’s “revolutionary” domed and compound curved LED technology. The new venue is the anchor of Development at Cadillac Square, a 1.5 million-square-foot mixed-use project developed by Bedrock Detroit located next to Campus Martius Park.
•115 shopping centers acquired for $2.34 billion Brixmor Property Group and Everview Partners have entered into definitive agreements to acquire Slate Grocery for $2.34 billion. Under the terms of the transaction and joint venture agreements, Brixmor will acquire a portfolio of 23 grocery-anchored centers totaling 3 million square feet of space for $636 million. A newly-formed institutional joint venture between Brixmor and affiliates of Everview Partners will acquire the remaining 92 assets of the Slate portfolio for $1.71 billion.
•JLL selected to lead retail leasing for new ski village in Utah JLL’s boutique retail leasing platform, 10Twelve, has been selected to curate a retail and restaurant lineup for a 180,000-sq.-ft. center to be constructed at the Deer Valley ski resort outside of Salt Lake City. JLL holds that the project will be the first new alpine village built in North America in more than 40 years.
•Edens acquires upscale open-air center in San Diego metro Commercial real estate owner and operator Edens has acquired The Forum, a 263,000-sq.-ft., open-air center in Carlsbad, Calif., north of San Diego. Opened in 2004, The Forum is anchored by specialty grocer Jimbo's, and features a mix of tenants that includes Apple, Vuori, Lululemon, Sur La Table, Anthropologie, Warby Parker, The Henry and more.
•Pacific Retail acquires Pacific View Mall Pacific Retail Capital Partners (PRCP) has joined with Conversant Capital Partners to purchase the Pacific View Mall, an 884,000-sq.-ft. property in Ventura, Calif., which is anchored by Target, Macy’s and JCPenney. Located at the intersection of Highway 101 and Highway 126, the mall has served as Ventura’s premier shopping and dining destination since it opened in 1964.
•Scrubs & Beyond closing all stores The company, which sells uniforms for health care professionals, is closing its 115-plus stores across 30 states. Scrubs & Beyond, which acquired Uniform City and Line Uniform in 2013, is the largest retailer of health care apparel and accessories in the United States, according to its website.
•GBT Realty plans Nashville's largest new retail development in over a decade GBT Realty Corporation has announced plans for The Crossroads of Gallatin retail development in Gallatin, Tenn., located 30 miles northeast of Nashville, which will span nearly 300,000 square feet. The site plan includes approximately 30,000 square feet of divisible shop space, multiple larger retail spaces ranging from approximately 5,000 to 55,000 square feet, and six outparcels ranging from approximately one to 1.7 acres.
•JLL names new chief operating officer The global commercial real estate services and investment firm has named Paul Morgan as chief operating officer, in addition to joining the company’s Global Executive Board (GEB). JLL said Morgan will play a key role in the execution of Accelerate 2030, its long-term strategy designed to “advance its core leadership position, bring the full strength of JLL to every client engagement, and operate on a unified, technology-enabled platform.”
•Cullinan breaks ground for retail space at Rock Run Collection in Chicagoland In early September, Cullinan Properties’ Rock Run Collection mixed-use project came alive at a groundbreaking ceremony for the retail zones in the 310-acre super-regional mixed-use center, located at the intersection of Interstates 80 and 55 in Joliet, Ill. When fully completed, Rock Run Collection will hold 570 multifamily apartments, 500-plus hotel rooms, some 150,000 square feet of office space, and more than 500,000 square feet of retail, restaurants and entertainment space.
•New store construction in L.A. this year is the lowest in decades While more than 600 lease commitments were signed across neighborhood and strip centers in Los Angeles in the first half of 2026, open space is scarce downtown, according to Marcus & Millichap’s Q3 Retail Market Report on the city. Retail inventory has expanded by just 162,000 square feet by June.
•Lightstone acquires OKC Outlets shopping center New York City-based real estate investment firm Lightstone has acquired OKC Outlets, a 394,280-sq.-ft open-air outlet center in Oklahoma City, for $80 million, or $203 per square foot. Lightstone said that as of July 2026, occupied square feet at OKC Outlets was 97.5%, and the center was leased to 94 national and regional tenants.
