What If?
May 1, 2007
The deals assume 70 percent debt, 30 percent equity and a 25 percent buyout premium. ($ in millions, except per share data) ...
Hanging by a Thread
May 1, 2007, By Jennifer Popovec
In early April, Gap Inc. released what, for it, qualified as the best news in a long time. The chain's same-store sales were up 2 percent during the first quarter 2007 compared with a 12 percent decrease for the same period last year...
Housing Blues
Apr 1, 2007, Elaine Misonzhnik
The outlook for retail just got a little cloudier. The one-two punch of the meltdown in the sub-prime mortgage market coupled with slower-than-expected retail sales growth has some economists wondering where the retail sector is going....
No Sweat
Apr 1, 2007, David Bodamer
You'd think that Kohlberg, Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P.'s proposed $7.3-billion acquisition of Dollar General Corp. the second largest leveraged buyout in retail since 2004 would have a potentially huge impact on strip center REITs...
Stores Open For Business
Apr 1, 2007, Elaine Misonzhnik
After the holiday sales are over and year-end earnings tallied, veterans of retail real estate brace for the first-quarter fallout. This is the time of year when retailers that didn't hit their targets announce bankruptcies and store closings....
Sub-prime Meltdown Could be Worrisome for Retail Sector
Mar 21, 2007
The outlook for retail just got a little cloudier. The one-two punch of the meltdown in the sub-prime mortgage market coupled with slower-than expected retail sales growth has some economists wondering where the retail sector is going...
Dollar General Buyout not a Big REIT Event
Mar 14, 2007
You’d think that Kohlberg, Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P.’s proposed $7.3 billion acquisition of Dollar General Corp would have a potentially huge impact on strip center REITs...
Gap: Deal or No Deal?
Mar 1, 2007, Elaine Misonzhnik
The ouster of CEO Paul Pressler at Gap Inc. earlier this year, after another lackluster holiday shopping season, has sparked new speculation among industry observers and analysts about whether the company will be the next retailer to fall to private equity....
LBOS To IPOS
Mar 1, 2007, Elaine Misonzhnik
Round and round we go. As the most recent wave of retailer privatizations continues, one of the first companies bought out Burger King Holdings, Inc. is taking the next step in becoming public again...
A Positive Postscript to Christmas 2006
Feb 28, 2007
After the holiday sales are over and year-end earnings tallied, veterans of retail real estate brace for the first-quarter fallout. This is the time of year when retailers that didn’t hit their targets announce bankruptcies and store closings...
Gap: Deal or No Deal?
Jan 25, 2007
The ouster of CEO Paul Pressler at Gap Inc. earlier this week, after another lackluster holiday shopping season, has sparked new speculation among industry observers and analysts about whether the company will be the next retailer to fall in the private equity takeover wave. ...
2007 Forecasts More of the Same
Jan 3, 2007
The 2006 holiday sales numbers, which posted the weakest growth in four years last week, are a sign of what’s ahead for the United States’ retail market in 2007 ...
Facing the Music
Jan 1, 2007
When Tower Records declared bankruptcy, the move caused some extra pain in New Orleans. ...
Retailers Look to Gift Cards, Post-Christmas Sales to Save the Season
Dec 28, 2006
The holiday shopping season limped across the finish line last week. When the final numbers are tallied, it looks like retailers will rack up about a 2.75 percent gain in same-store sales—far off the 3 to 7.5 percent many experts predicted ...
Housing Bubble Taking Toll on Home Improvement Chains
Dec 20, 2006, Riccardo A. Davis
The aisles at home improvement giants Home Depot and Lowe’s are featuring a lot of items you probably wouldn’t expect. This year, they’re stocking shelves with plasma televisions, digital cameras, and even Christmas CDs...
Theater Traffic
Dec 1, 2006, Riccardo A. Davis
Movie theaters are returning to regional malls. Movie theaters are making a big comeback at malls. A few years ago the industry got hit with problems in overbuilding and lackluster seasons for summer blockbusters....
Lagging Behind
Dec 1, 2006, By Elaine Misonzhnik
For years, the Northeast seemed to be immune to the transformation of the grocery industry where dominant regional players across the country have been giving way to national chains, wholesale players, Wal-Mart and Target supercenter concepts and, more recently, upscale operators like Whole Foods and Wild Oats...
The Day the Music Died
Dec 1, 2006, By Elaine Misonzhnik
When 46-year-old Tower Records opted to close its doors in October, it marked the end of an era. More significantly, it marked another blow to traditional record store chains, which are dropping off the map one by one...
Mixed forecast for holiday shopping season
Nov 15, 2006
The turkey dinners are being planned, Macy’s is getting ready to deploy a giant Pikachu for its 80th Thanksgiving Day parade, and America’s shoppers are plotting their strategies for the grueling ritual of Black Friday. All the pieces are falling into place for a traditional Thanksgiving weekend. But among the oracles of retail—the analysts and consultants who have their own annual Thanksgiving rite, involving bold predictions of how the crucial holiday season will go—all is not well. This, it turns out, is a tough one to call. ...
Sixtysomething
Nov 1, 2006, By Elaine Misonzhnik
The oldest Baby Boomers are turning 60 this year. But if you want to succeed in retail and keep them coming to your properties don't treat these folks like has-beens...
Bouncing Back
Nov 1, 2006
Americans armed with more cash to spend due to falling gas prices are expected to pump it back into shopping malls, bolstering projections for the holiday shopping season...
Kohl’s vs. JCPenney: A Store-Opening Contest to Capture the Middle Market
Oct 18, 2006, Elaine Misonzhnik
On Oct. 5, Kohl’s Corp. opened 65 new stores. The following day, J.C. Penney Co. opened 20 new locations of its own. In both cases, the moves represented company records for the largest one-day rollout. ...
Business CASUAL
Oct 1, 2006, By Elaine Misonzhnik
Lifestyle centers have been a whopping success in no small part due to the popularity of their dining offerings. Today, developers are rushing to build more of these restaurant-heavy properties...
Retail Rents Climb
Oct 1, 2006
Although volatile gas prices, rising interest rates, the cooling housing market and slow job growth are conspiring to create a rocky retail environment, owners are still pushing for higher rents in the sector...
The Rite Play
Oct 1, 2006, Elaine Misonzhnik
Drug store operator Rite Aid's $3.4 billion proposed acquisition of 337 Brooks and 1,521 Eckerd stores is a bold bid to catch industry leaders CVS and Walgreen's and that could be good news for net lease investors...
