STORE SPACES

Retail executives are invited to introduce their rising stars to the industry’s leading store development and facilities event -- SPECS, which will be held March 13-16, 2011, at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine, Texas. Qualified senior executives and their future leaders will receive FREE registration to this year’s show.

Due to the blizzard in New York City and resulting travel delays, the deadline for entries in Chain Store Age’s 29th annual Retail Store of the Year design competition has been extended until Tuesday, January 4, 2011.

For more information/entry form, go to chainstoreage.com/retail-store-year-0 or e-mail [email protected].

New York - Dollar General is considering a plan to build a $60 million distribution center in Bessemer that could create up to 650 jobs, the Birmingham Business Journal reported. 

The new facility would be the 10th distribution center for Dollar General (NYSE: DG), according to Tawn Earnest, senior director of corporate communications for the company. The company is seeking incentives from local governments for the project.

Burbank, Calif. - Colton, Calif.-based Hodgdon Group said Monday it has completed the conversion of the former Circuit City for an Ashley Furniture HomeStore in downtown Burbank, Calif.

Hodgdon Realty Group negotiated the 31,000-sq.-ft. lease for Ashley Furniture with Crown Realty & Development Inc. of Irvine, Calif. Hodgdon-Miank Construction served as the full-service design-build contractor and completed the major renovation for a new Ashley Furniture HomeStore.

Fayetteville, Ark. - A report Monday said that Wal-Mart Stores is preparing to test a small-format store it is calling “Walmart on Campus” at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.

According to the report by Advertising Age, the pilot appears to be part of a series of tests of Walmart’s smaller-format stores.

Dallas - Blockbuster Inc. said in a Friday filing that it plans to close 182 stores in the next few months as part of the movie rental company’s move to get its business back in shape in bankruptcy court.

Blockbuster, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September, has already closed more than 1,000 underperforming stores in the past two years. It had about 3,000 stores when it entered bankruptcy.

Dallas -- Lennox International, a leader in the heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration markets announced it has signed a definitive agreement with The Manitowoc Co. to acquire substantially all the assets of its Kysor/Warren business.

Kysor/Warren is a leading manufacturer of refrigerated systems and display cases for supermarkets throughout North America.
 

Conshohocken, Pa. -- Ikea plans to install solar energy panels on two East Coast stores: Paramus, N.J., and Stoughton, Mass. Pending governmental permits, the rooftop installation will begin in the new year, with completion expected in spring 2011. The Paramus installation will have 4,600 panels generating 1,354,000 kWh/year, while the Stoughton site will have 2,800 panels generating 725,000 kWh/year.