REAL ESTATE

Los Angeles – A store called “Dumb Starbucks,” with no affiliation with the actual Starbucks chain, has reportedly opened in Los Angeles. According to the Wall Street Journal, the store opened, offering free coffee, on Saturday, Feb. 8.

Burlington, Mass. — The investment sales team at KeyPoint Partners has completed the sale of eight properties throughout New England. Totaling about 440,000 sq. ft., the properties consist of shopping centers, mixed-use and single-tenant buildings in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Connecticut. The aggregate price of the properties was in excess of $30 million. The properties include:

• Shaw’s Plaza, a 121,660-sq.-ft. shopping center in Providence, R.I.

Indianapolis  — Kite Realty Group Trust has announced a definitive agreement with Inland Diversified Real Estate Trust. Under the agreement, Inland Diversified will merge with and into a wholly owned subsidiary of Kite Realty through a stock-for-stock merger. The transaction value is approximately $2.1 billion; the equity value is approximately $1.2 billion; and the enterprise value is approximately $3.9 billion — this based on the closing trading price of Kite realty’s common shares on February 7, 2014.

New York — Lao Feng Xiang Jewelry has signed a long-term lease for its first North American retail store and showroom at 585 Fifth Avenue in New York City. Slated to open in the fall of 2014, the 6,100-sq.-ft. flagship store will feature three floors plus a basement. The jeweler has more than 2,300 sales outlets around the world.

Winick Realty Group represented the owner, TSW 33 Realty Corp. in the transaction, achieving a record rent that edged close to the record asking price of $2.25 million per year. CBRE represented Lao Feng Xiang.

Virginia Beach, Va. — Ingenuity Development has entered into a strategic alliance with a New York Stock Exchange-traded Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) to combine forces on joint venture opportunities for retail and mixed-use projects in the Mid-Atlantic and the Southeast. Ingenuity will also see opportunities to work with its affiliate, Divaris Real Estate, to lease and manage completed projects.

Northbrook, Ill. — Pine Tree Commercial realty has appointed Ryan Montes to the post of property manager and asset management coordinator. Montes will manage three Pine Tree assets, while overseeing quarterly asset management meetings and portfolio reporting.

Montes comes to Pine Tree from Miller Capital Advisory’s asset management and reporting group, where he handled reporting and analysis for over 10.4 million sq. ft. of regional and lifestyle shopping centers.

Nashville, Tenn. — GBT Realty has announced that Firehouse Subs, Aspen Dental, Bama Fever Tiger Pride, Smashburger and Edible Arrangements will be coming to Cobbs Ford Village, a new in-line shopping center in Prattville, Ala.

Starbuck’s and Gigi’s Cupcakes have already opened at the shopping center, and Chipotle will open in mid February. Two 1,600-sq.-ft. places remain available.

Portland, Ore. — Cypress Equities, the management company for Lloyd Center in Portland, Ore., has announced that the Center’s owners intend to purchase the 130,000-sq.-ft. building currently owned and occupied by Nordstrom. The acquisition is part of the center’s recently announced renovation plans.

Plans call for the building to change hands in January of 2015. Nordstrom has notified its employees that the store will close.