STORE SPACES

Plano, Texas -- J.C. Penney announced Wednesday a partnership with Canadian fast-fashion brand Joe Fresh that will see some 700 Joe Fresh in-store boutiques open in J.C. Penney department stores in April 2013.
 

Portland, Ore. -- Office Depot said Tuesday that its downtown Portland store has been remodeled to reflect a smaller footprint and an environmentally friendly design.

As part of an effort to improve the customer shopping experience, Office Depot said it has been rolling out smaller store formats across the U.S., and the newly downsized Portland store – one of the larger formats when it opened 13 years ago – is the first in the Pacific Northwest to follow the trend.

St. Louis -- Build-A-Bear Workshop announced Tuesday that it is introducing a newly imagined store design in six markets across the U.S. in 2012. 

The new store design, which has been over two years in the making, merges the Build-A-Bear Workshop hands-on bear-making process with technology to enhance the customer experience.

“I am very excited about the enhanced features that will allow us to continue to lead in the interactive retail space,” said Maxine Clark, founder and chief executive bear of Build-A-Bear Workshop.

Columbus, Ohio -- Express said Monday it will open two flagship stores in 2013 – one in Times Square in New York City and the other in San Francisco’s Union Square.
 
The San Francisco store is slated to open in the summer and Times Square – at the corner of 46th Street and Broadway – is expected to open in the fall.

Minneapolis -- Target Corp. said Monday it has begun remodeling 30 stores to expand their fresh-food offerings; construction on all 30 stores is slated for an October 2012 completion.

The current remodels are part of the last of three cycles of remodels this year and span markets from Cincinnati, to Jacksonville, Fla., and Nashville, Tenn.

New York -- Ann Taylor Loft on July 24, will celebrate the grand opening of its new store at Woodbury Common Premium Outlets, in Central Valley, N.Y.

DGC Capital Contracting Corp., Mount Vernon, N.Y., served as general contractor for the new Ann Taylor Loft. The contractor took down two existing stores to create the space for the new 7,500-sq.-ft. Loft store.

Seattle -- Starbucks Coffee Co. has opened its second Evolution Fresh juice store, in downtown Seattle. The new format, which also sells wraps, salads and vegetarian and vegan offerings, made its debut four months ago, in Bellevue, Wash. Additional stores in Seattle and San Francisco will open this fall.

In addition to the new stores, Starbucks is expanding distribution of ready-to-drink bottles of Evolution juice in supermarkets and other outlets to tap into the growing market for premium juices.

Chicago -- The first of Target’s smaller-format CityTarget urban stores are slated to open on July 25 in Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle.

Two years in the making, the smaller stores will feature broad offerings in a space two-thirds the size of a regular Target store – or 80,000 sq. ft. to 100,000 sq. ft., compared with 135,000 sq. ft. to 175,000 sq. ft.

Orlando, Fla. -- Convenience-store operator WaWa has entered the Florida market, opening a store across from Sea World in Orlando. Four additional units are scheduled to open in the Orlando market during the next four five weeks.

Basking Ridge, N.J. -- Verizon Wireless said Tuesday that its green retail store design has achieved pre-certification in the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Volume Program. 

Verizon Wireless is one of only eight retailers in the United States and the only wireless company to achieve pre-certification from the USGBC, according to the company.