Food Fight
Feb 1, 2006, David Bodamer
Just as the Sears/Kmart and Federated/May mergers underscored the diminishing role of department stores (and therefore danger signs for the traditional...
Mega-Albertson's Deal Redraws Industry Map
Jan 25, 2006
Just as the Sears/Kmart and Federated/May mergers underscored the diminishing role of department stores (and therefore danger signs for the traditional mall), the proposed $17.4 billion buyout and break up of Albertson's Inc., has similar implications for strip centers. Moreover, the presence of Kimco Realty Corp. in the deal continues a company trend in profiting from a distressed retailer's real estate. ...
NY Transit Strike Pinches National Chains
Dec 22, 2005
New York retailers are preparing for a grim holiday season, as the city's transit workers remain on strike for the second day -- with no new talks scheduled between the Transport Worker's Union and the Metropolitan Transit Administration. If the walkout continues through Christmas, December sales could take a hit, analysts say. ...
Santa's Christmas Wish: More Discounters at Malls
Dec 2, 2005
After disappointing holiday sales last year, Wal-Mart decided that, at whatever cost, it would boost sales and traffic this year by discounting early and aggressively. Apparently, the plan is working. The world's biggest retailer reported that more than 2 million customers passed through the front doors of its U.S. stores between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. the morning of Black Friday, as shoppers raced for limited quantities of super-sale items, such as Hewlett-Packard desktop computers for $398. ...
Holiday Sales Look Off-Target
Nov 17, 2005
Has the Grinch stolen Christmas? Make that, has Target stolen Christmas? The country's second-largest discounter warned that November same-store sales would fall short of expectations of last year's 4 percent to 6 percent gain, but it didn't say how short or explain why. The estimate is based on sales in the first two months of the year and expectations for the rest of the month. ...
Inventory Controls Signal Holiday Pessimism
Nov 10, 2005
Want a clue as to the holiday season may turn out? Look at inventory management. After a slow fall, retailers report that excess inventory still needs to be moved, and, as a result, they have cut back their holiday orders. They don't want a repeat of last year, when retailers got stuck with big inventories and cut prices too late. ...
On The Brink?
Nov 1, 2005, By Meg Richards
Chili's Grill & Restaurant is hot. Other Brinker International Inc. chains are not. So what is the No. 2 restaurant company doing to assure growth? Culling...
Tis The Season?
Oct 1, 2005, David Koch
The Grinch that could steal Christmas for retailers this year will be higher energy prices gas and home heating oil. With three months until the end of...
Federated's Marshall Plan
Sep 22, 2005
Considerable brand loyalty if you ask Chicagoans. What is Federated Department Stores Inc. thinking? That's what many Chicagoans, including myself, and others with a strong sense of the retail past are asking one day after Federated said it will re-brand the venerated chain under the Macy's name. The outrage is palpable. "Macy's has no significance in Chicago. Stay in NY!" one local wrote to the Chicago Tribune online edition. "I urge Chicagoans to boycott Macy's and buy nothing from its store beginning this Christmas!" ...
Good Tidings...Or Not: Katrina, rising gas prices expected to spoil the holiday spirit
Sep 22, 2005
The Grinch that could steal Christmas for retailers this year will be higher energy prices. With more than three months until the end of the holiday season, the National Retail Federation predicted today that holiday sales will increase 5 percent, less than last year's 6.7 percent gain. While numbers may vary, the sentiment among analysts remains the same. Holiday sales this year won't be nearly as high as 2004 largely due to rising energy costs. ...
New Orleans Blues
Sep 8, 2005
In two days, hurricane winds and broken levees took what now seem certain to be thousands of lives. As the fetid waters begin to recede in New Orleans, revealing unprecedented levels of property damage, it is clear that it will take years to rebuild. During a week in which few politicians distinguished themselves, House Speaker Dennis Hastert set some kind of record for insensitivity by declaring that it would not make sense to rebuild at all and that much of the city "could be bulldozed." Hastert was quickly shushed, but he raised a relevant question: What will happen to New Orleans? ...
A Full House
Jul 1, 2005, By Jennifer Popovec
With a slew of neighborhood centers already suffering from dark grocery store anchors, Winn-Dixie Stores Inc.'s decision in June to pull out of 14 markets...
CONVENTION BUZZ: ICSC: As Good As It Gets?
Jun 1, 2005
After nearly three years of outstanding performance by the retail real estate business, executives at the annual ICSC convention in Las Vegas were talking...
Heard On The Floor At ICSC Convention
May 25, 2005
One of the more creative concepts that a handful of developers are floating is home furnishing centers. California-based Birtcher Development LLC is hunting for opportunities to build centers that would be dominated by chains like Ethan Allen. The demand for furnishings is being generated by the single-family housing boom, which still shows few signs of slowing (on Tueday, the National Association of Realtors reported a new record for existing home sales in April). Markets like Dallas, Phoenix and Las Vegas remain likely targets. Architects DFD CornoyerHedrick are also bullish on the concept and have a few projects in the works in the Phoenix metro area....
Almost Live, From Las Vegas
May 25, 2005
It has been a lively three days in Las Vegas for the record 40,000 that the International Council of Shopping Centers say are in attendance. The staff of Retail Traffic has been wandering the exhibit halls and listening in on the conference program for interesting tidbits. Here’s some of what we learned....
Heard On The Floor
May 24, 2005
CoStar Group Inc. is taking a deliberate approach in ramping up its retail operations. The company is aiming to add 600,000 retail properties by the end of next year to the 40,000 it has now--much of which came in its recent acquisition of the National Research Bureau from Claritas). The company’s aim is to be the preeminent data source for market rents, vacancy rates and other industry metrics....
As Good As It Gets
May 24, 2005
After nearly three years of amazing performance by the retail real estate business, executives at the annual ICSC convention in Las Vegas were talking almost wistfully about the end of the good old days: Someday soon, they say, this cycle has to wind down. “We’re due for a downturn,” says Greg Maloney, CEO of Jones Lang Lasalle retail Nobody is talking about a catastrophic collapse, but there is a clear sense that money is beginning to cycle out of retail projects and into other sectors of commercial real estate. Harvey Green, CEO and President of brokers Marcus & Millichap says he subscribes to the theory that the Federal Reserve’s tightening is now directed specifically at easing the real estate bubble-especially in residential housing....
Welch Urges Execs To Avoid Complacency
May 23, 2005, By Matt Valley
Be tough, urged Jack Welch, the colorful former CEO of General Electric, at the Las Vegas Hilton on Sunday afternoon.Welch stressed the behavior that earned him the nickname “Neutron Jack,” telling execs not to be afraid to weed out non-performers, either working to improve their output or else letting them go....
Industry Upbeat as Show Starts
May 23, 2005, By David Bodamer
Increasing talk of a real estate bubble is not fazing industry executives heading into this year’s ICSC Spring Convention. In fact, most think the mood is the most upbeat it’s ever been. ...
Another Week, Two More Deals
May 5, 2005
The rapid makeover of the retail industry continued unabated last week. Private equity investors Texas Pacific Group and Warburg Pincus LLC agreed to buy Neiman Marcus for $5.1 billion and the Saks has agreed to sell two department store divisions -- McRae's and Proffitt's -- to Belk for $622 million. Texas Pacific and Warburg are continuing the trend of private equity firms to pour money into retail. ...
Que Linda
May 1, 2005
After discontinuing its Lucy Pereda brand of clothes because, an executive said, they had limited appeal, Sears is introducing a clothing line called...
Retail Metamorphosis
May 1, 2005, Renée DeGross
With Neiman Marcus up for grabs, and speculation that JCPenney and Saks Inc. are in play, experts say it's the beginning of the beginning, calling it...
The Rising Dollar
May 1, 2005, By David Koch
Doron Valero, president of Equity One Inc., knew he had a problem. Two shopping centers in his portfolio were losing Kmarts while Winn-Dixie was pulling...
Shop Where You Live
May 1, 2005, BY DORON VALERO
In recent years, vertical mixed-use developments with supermarket components have surged in popularity in many urban U.S. markets. The primary driver...
Consolidation Talk is in the Air
Apr 7, 2005
With Saks, Neiman Marcus and J.C. Penney the subjects of takeover rumors, who would buy excess property? Belk, Kohl's and Target could be the big winners if Saks Inc. decides to sell its department store group, say analysts. Saks went to the top of the list of potential buy-outs last week on news reports that the company is courting buyers for both its mid-level department store group and high-end Saks Fifth Avenue. ...
