REAL ESTATE

Pottery Barn is bringing its new store concept to the city where it all began.    The retailer, a division of Williams-Sonoma, will unveil a 17,000-sq.-ft. flagship on September 8, 2017, in Manhattan's Flatiron District. (The first Pottery Barn store opened in 1949 in the West Chelsea section of lower Manhattan.)   

It's going to be a busy September for Dick's Sporting Goods.   The retailer will open eight namesake stores and two new Field & Stream stores in the first half of September, including three locations in California. The openings will give the company 711 Dick's locations and 34 Field & Stream locations across the country.   

You’ve read the news: More and more spending is moving online and retailers that have not been able to adapt are falling by the wayside. E-commerce accounted for 8.9% of all retail spending in early 2017 and has nearly tripled its share of overall retail spending since 2008.    

Boll & Branch, until now an online-only seller of towels and linens, has opened its first brick-and-mortar location at the Short Hills Mall in New Jersey.   Claiming to sell the “World’s Most Comfortable Sheets,” Boll & Branch also offers towels and will inhabit a 2,137-sq.-ft. shop at the high-end, suburban mall known as one of the few to house Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale’s, and Macy’s under one roof.  

The British brand best known for its bagless vacuum cleaners, bladeless fans and, most recently, high-tech hair-dryers is expanding its fledgling retail portfolio.    Dyson Ltd. will open a "Dyson Demo" store this fall at Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto. Also in the works: a store at 640 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, and one in San Francisco's Union Square.  

Westfield’s billion-dollar renovation of its Century City Mall in Los Angeles will include a swanky Uber Lounge when it is completed this fall.   Westfield has formed a partnership with Uber to facilitate use of shared rides at its centers nationwide. The mall owner will create drop-off and pick-up stations at every one of its U.S. properties, whose locations will be digitally mapped into the Uber app. The idea: make pick-ups and drop-offs easier and build mall traffic.  

Don't believe the hype — physical retail is still growing, particularly in three key segments.   Retailers are opening 4,080 more stores in 2017 than they are closing, according to a new research report from IHL Group, and they plan to open over 5,500 more in 2018. Mass-merchandisers, including off-pricers and value chains, are the fastest-growing retail segment (+1,905 stores), followed by convenience stores (+1,700 stores) and grocery retailers (+674 stores).  

In what it claims to be the biggest-dollar real estate transaction in the state of Virginia this year, Morgan Properties bought the Mark Center in Alexandria for $509 million.   The Mark Center combines 2,664 residential units with 63,320 sq. ft. of retail on 150 acres within the Capital Beltway. The site features read access to Interstates 295, 395, and 495 and is within minutes of downtown Washington, D.C.