Despite some economists' forecasts that the recession could be over by the end of summer, industry watchers say merchants are betting that it's going to be 12 to 18 months before consumer spending gets even close to pre-recession levels. That's...
Here is a video from one of our sister publications, Business Finance, looking at how companies with low costs of capital are outmaneuvering companies with high costs of capital. It makes a lot of sense in a climate like this where lining up...
New York's Crown Acquisitions, with the Chetrit Group as its partner, has bid $22 million for the stores, which it would continue operating under the Basement name. Its offer will be considered as part of an upcoming court auction during which...
In today's Chicago Tribune, a story looks at Sears' ever changing strategy. Is Edward Lampert thinking excess space? The company apparently is adding staff to its real estate division. The company has 200 million square feet of space. That's a lot...
Things were quiet for a while on the store closure front. But last week Jones Apparel Group said it would shutter 225 stores. In more positive news, however, C&S Wholesale Grocers won an auction and will buy all 56 Bruno's locations. Bruno's...
Did General Growth open the floodgates? It's been by far the biggest commercial real estate bankruptcy, but the list of other firms being forced to reorganize is growing. Three subsidiaries of Lauth Property Group are seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy...
I've been away for a few days and a lot has happened. I'm going to approach this by doing some longer round-up posts with lots of links and then a couple of shorter posts with comments. Also, I've been updating our twitter page. So that's a good...
Whoa. This is really interesting. CEO David Simon was speaking at an industry event yesterday and revealed that Simon tried to buy some General Growth malls before GGP filed for bankruptcy, but was rebuffed. Simon takes a shot at GGP here. General...
From Reuters Shop Talk blog. DDR COO Daniel Hurwitz says some retailers are exaggerating how well they're doing in getting concessions from landlords and that DDR, for one, has been stingy--only acquiescing on 3 percent of the requests it has...
