REAL ESTATE

Clinton Township, Mich. — The Mall at Partridge Creek, in the Detroit, metropolitan region, has named Melissa Morang marketing and sponsorship director. Morang will develop public programs, events and community relations for the center.

Morang returns to metro Detroit after spending the past year in the Grand Rapids area working in Meijer’s corporate office on marketing strategies for the retailers soft lines division.

New York — Steve Madden and Trebbianno have signed long-term leases totaling more than 60,000 sq. ft. at 19 West 34th Street, also known as the Martin Building, in New York City.

Steve Madden is taking the entire fifth floor and part of the fourth and eighth floors and will use approximately 40,000 sq. ft. of the 14-story building. The space will serve as one of Steve Madden’s corporate offices and showrooms.

La Jolla, Calif. — Ramsey Real Estate Group has announced the commencement of a $600,000 renovation to Decatur Inn Plaza in Las Vegas. The renovation will include new storefronts, design elements, exterior finishes, building systems, landscaping and parking lot work. Vacant suites will receive vanilla shell treatments. Structural elements will be repaired and replaced. The renovations will also include rebuilding the property’s monument sign. Existing businesses will remain open during the renovation.

Syracuse, N.Y. — Junior fashion retailer, Lexy, has expanded into a new 3,098-sq.-ft. store at Moreno Valley Mall in Moreno Valley, Calif. The new store opened on Feb. 14.

Managed by Spinoso Real Estate Group, the center is home to 130 stores and restaurants including a number of new arrivals. Crunch Fitness recently moved into a 20,000-sq.-ft space. Junior fashion retailer, Image, opened in December 2013.

Dublin, Ohio -- The Wendy’s Company announced the sale of 70 restaurants in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex to Texas-based MUY Hamburger Partners, a Wendy's  franchisee. The transaction is designed to promote new restaurant growth and reimaging, while generating a more predictable revenue stream for the company.

Tampa, Fla. — BurgerMonger has taken a 2,700-sq.-ft. lease at Northwood Commons shopping center in Clearwater, Fla. This will be the restaurants fifth location, according to Florida Retail Partners www.floridaretailpartners, an X Team partner and co-broker representing BurgerMonger on the transaction. National Real Estate Ventures was the other co-broker.

When the new BurgerMonger opens in April, the fast casual restaurant will have four locations in the Tampa Bay metropolitan area and one in Willow Grove, Pa.

While we’re only just getting started on 2014, already one of the big retail stories is store closings. While the economy is far from robust, we aren’t in a recession either, and so at first these closings might seem a little surprising. I don’t see it that way, however: The recent spate of planned store closing for 2014 is exactly what we should expect from an industry in transition. It’s not a crisis, so much as it is a realignment.

Tejon Ranch, Calif. — Pottery Barn plans to open a new outlet store at The Outlets at Tejon. At 12,397-sq. ft., it will be the retailer’s ninth outlet store in the U.S. and its only current outlet store in California.

Currently under construction and slated to open in August 2014, The Outlets at Tejon is located on Interstate 5 between Los Angeles and Bakersfield, Calif.