REAL ESTATE

If you’ve been reading this column over the last four years, let me first say, “thank you!” It’s gratifying to think that my musings about retail and retail real estate have kept your attention and interest. In this, my 100th and final (except for an occasional contribution) Retail Rap, I wanted to tackle the big question: What’s next? Where is the retail industry — particularly brick-and-mortar — headed in the months and years ahead?

Oakbrook, Ill. -- InvenTrust Properties Corp. announced a series of appointments to its senior management team. The new appointments, effective immediately, are as follows:

· James Christensen has been named senior VP of asset management.
 
· Chris Dykstra has been named senior VP of property management.
 
· Nicole Horne has been named VP of transactions.
 

Photo: Central Valley Marketplace, Ceres, California

London - McArthurGlen Group, an owner, developer and manager of European designer outlets, is opening its first North American location on July 9, in Vancouver. McArthurGlen Vancouver Airport is designed in an open-air village style, with a luxury piazza and tree-lined streets.

On opening, the center will offer 240,000-sq.-ft. of retail space with 50 new stores, featuring Armani, Coach, J Crew, Hugo Boss, Ports 1961, Tommy Hilfiger and Polo Ralph Lauren, with more brands to come before the end of 2015.

Just as the agora in Ancient Greece was the central meeting place where the community could come together to purchase goods from the market, connect with their friends and learn about the latest news, so too are today’s modern shopping centers a place that connects local residents. Today, by leveraging their structure and location, shopping centers can go one step further to affect positive change in their local communities and the nation at large by back to make local residents’ lives better.

Chicago -- Marbles: The Brain Store is in an expansion mode.

The retailer has opened a new store in Washington D.C., at National Harbor, the waterfront shopping and entertainment district on the Potomac River. It is Marbles’ second location in the Washington, D.C., area and its third to open this summer, with new stores debuting in Times Square in New York City and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, marking its first location in the southern region.

Chicago -- Englewood Construction has finished a 55,000-sq.-ft. ground-up Hobby Lobby store on an outlet pad at Seabrook Crossings, a new retail development in Seabrook, N.H.   

In Franklin, Tenn., Englewood recently completed an American Girl store, located in the CoolSprings Galleria mall just outside of Nashville. The store is the 12th Englewood has completed for American Girl. The architect for the project was Morristown, N.J.-based Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.
 
 

Cincinnati -- Phillips Edison Grocery Center announced it has acquired three grocery-anchored shopping centers in Michigan, California, and Massachusetts.

Crossroads Towne Center is a 102,275-sq.-ft. grocery store-anchored shopping center in Howell, Michigan, a suburb of Ann Arbor, Michigan. The center is anchored by Kroger, and also features national tenants Great Clips, Jets Pizza, Subway, H&R Block, and Little Caesars.