REAL ESTATE

The economic trend for some time now has been a slow and meandering recovery. Despite improving consumer confidence numbers, a surprising first quarter GDP decline of 2.9% speaks to that uncertainty. Retail analysts and observers have a tendency to blame the weather whenever we have a bad economic quarter or when retail sales are unexpectedly sluggish, but I tend to be a little dubious of those explanations. Last winter was definitely rough enough to impact spending, but I don’t think it’s enough to explain the continued issues into the spring.

North Brunswick, N.J. - Staples has leased a 14,000 sq. ft. space at North Village Shopping Center in North Brunswick, N.J. Levin Management, exclusive leasing and managing agent for the 132,000-sq.-ft. center, negotiated the lease.

Dublin, Calif. -- Ross Dress for Less opened two new stores in the Pacific Northwest on July 19. The stores opening are in Columbia Crossing in East Vancouver, Washington, and Pioneer Crossing in Bend, Oregon.    

These new openings are part of the retailer’s 2014 expansion program, totaling approximately 75 new locations during the year.

Westminster, Colo. -- Brixmor Property Group, owner and operator of the largest wholly owned U.S. portfolio of grocery-anchored shopping centers, has leased more than 97,000 sq. ft. of retail space to five national retailers at Westminster City Center in Westminster, Colorado. 

San Francisco -- Continuing its global growth, Gap Inc. on Monday announced that it will introduce the Gap brand to Slovenia and Austria through agreements with new and existing franchise partners. Magistrat International, a new partner, has been selected for the launch of Slovenia. Gottex, which currently manages the Gap franchise business in Israel and Hungary, will launch Austria.

Long Beach, Calif. – A former state office building near City Hall in Long Beach, California, is reportedly being torn down to make way for a seven-story, $53 million mixed use retail and residential complex. According to the Long Beach Press-Telegram, the vacant property was bought in foreclosure for $10 million in 2010.

New York -- Italian luxury brand Fendi has opened a pop-up, called #fendisoho in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood. The 630-sq.-ft. store will be open until the end of the year.

The merchandise will rotate on a monthly basis, with different themes that reflect the breadth of the brand’s offerings. The first collection is devoted to accessories, or what Fendi calls “must-have mini-icons.”

Dublin, Calif. - Ross Stores opened 23 Ross Dress for Less stores and seven DD’s Discounts locations across 17 states in June and July. These new locations are part of the retailer's plans to add a total of approximately 75 Ross and 20 DD’s Discounts stores during 2014.

Ross believes that future growth opportunities include almost doubling its store count from its current 1,194 stores to 2,000 stores, and also growing DD’s Discounts from 144 stores to 500 stores.