REAL ESTATE

Shelby Township, Mich. -- Centro Properties Group US announced that Ulta will open a 9,405-sq.-ft. store at Hall Road Crossing, located in Shelby Township, Mich.

Centro Properties Group, based in New York City, is the owner of Hall Road Crossing.
 

New Milford, Conn. -- Westport, Conn.-based Charter Realty & Development Corp. said it has arranged a lease for 28,000 sq. ft. for a HomeGoods store in the Kohls Plaza, located in New Milford, Conn.

HomeGoods will be a part of Litchfield Crossings, which is a new, 282,000-sq.-ft. development that is being built by Scalzo Realty.

Chicago -- Wal-Mart Stores said Monday it has launched site work for a new store in Chatham, Ill. The new superstore is expected to create 400 new jobs and open in spring 2012.

New York City -- Nordstrom plans to open a Nordstrom Rack in Farmington, Conn., located just outside of Hartford. This will be the first Nordstrom Rack in Connecticut.

The new 35,000 sq-ft. store is scheduled to open during spring 2012 at West Farm Shopping Center.
 

Salisbury, N.C. -- Discount grocer Bottom Dollar Food plans to enter the greater Pittsburgh, and Youngstown, Ohio, markets, starting with 14 locations.

Most of the locations are expected to open in early 2012.
 

New York City -- McDonald’s Corp. plans to build the largest restaurant in its system as part of its role as official restaurant of the 2012 Olympic Games in London. The chain has been an Olympics sponsor since 1976.

Speaking in a global webcast on July 20, McDonald's UK CEO Jill McDonald said the planned restaurant will span 32,290 sq.-ft. over two levels, and will have a kitchen four times standard size to accommodate the crowds. The chain says it expects to serve 1.75 million meals during the games, which run from July 27 to Aug. 12, 2012.

To plug the widening book seller gap, who are you going to call?  Chain Store Age columnist Jeff Green offers a few ideas of his own for filling the category chasm created by Borders' liquidation and Barnes & Noble contractions. 

Check out Jeff's newest column, "Turning the Page on Bookstores," on our real estate community site, under Retail Rap with Jeff Green, chainstoreage.com/community.

New York City -- Victorinox Swiss Army said Thursday it will open five stores in 2011, the first of which opened July 1 in The Westchester in White Plains, NY.

According to Joachim Beer, president of global fashion and retail for the chain, future store openings include Boston, Short Hills, N.J., and Los Angeles, all slated to open prior to year end.