REAL ESTATE

There’s an artsy home linens player in town, and comes complete with a French accent.

French home décor and lifestyle brand Madura, best known for its artful and colorful decorative pillows, has opened a flagship in New York City’s Flatiron neighborhood. It’s the opening salvo in the family-run company’s expansion efforts in the United States.

Ross Dress for Less will open a new store in West Pembroke Pines, Florida, on Oct. 10.

The 26,000-sq.-ft. store is located in Westfork Plaza.

With this new location, Ross will operate 153 stores in Florida. The opening is part of the retailer’s 2015 expansion program, totaling approximately 70 new locations during the year.

When Macy’s announced in early September that it planned to close between 35 and 40 underperforming stores, the move certainly made headlines. Unfortunately for Macy’s, it also made sense. Because, as most analysts and industry observers can attest, it only reaffirmed a storyline that has been developing for many years now: department stores are in trouble.

Twenty-three year SPECS attendee Randy Pannell, VP of construction for Saks Fifth Avenue, shares his thoughts on SPECS, Chain Store Age’s annual store planning/construction and facilities conference, which will be held March 13-15, 2016, in Dallas. For more on the event, click here.

Why do you attend SPECS each year?
To be honest, in the early years, SPECS was really just a trade show to me. But I soon realized that it was more than that. It really worked!

San Francisco -- General Growth Properties announced the launch of the first-ever marketplace at Stonestown Galleria’s in San Francisco. The marketplace is a partnership with SFMade, a California 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation that promotes goods and services manufactured, designed and produced in the Bay Area.

The Stop & Shop division of Ahold hopes to excite food shoppers in the New York area by bringing its brand of retail to 25 tired stores it acquired from A&P.

Stop & Shop completed its acquisition of the A&P stores on Oct. 8 and said it plans to convert the locations in groups of five with the entire process completed by Friday, Nov. 13. Store being converted will close for roughly seven days to allow crews to complete the process.

Saks Fifth Avenue is expanding further into the specialty store business.

The retailer announced plans to open a 21,000-sq.-ft. store devoted to jewelry and contemporary women’s ready-to-wear in Greenwich, Connecticut. Earlier this year, Saks announced plans to open a standalone shoe store concept, 10022-Shoe, also in Greenwich.

Saks already operates a women’s-only store in Greenwich, which it opened in 1997.

All three of the Saks stores will be in walking distance of one another.

Fresh Thyme Farmers Market is upping its store count in the greater Chicago market.

The new specialty grocer will open three Chicagoland stores on Oct. 14, with one in the city, one in Crystal Lake and one in Naperville. The openings will give Fresh Thyme seven Chicagoland locations.

The chain, which offers organic products at value prices, recently opened a central support hub in Downers Grove, Illinois.