Federated Department Stores, Inc. signed an agreement with Belk, Inc. to exchange its 140,000-square-foot Macy's store at Mayfaire Town Center in Wilmington, N.C. for a 130,000-square-foot Parisian store at the Avenue Carriage Crossing in Collierville, Tenn. Both stores are expected to close in late February and reopen in the spring of 2007 — the Parisian store as a Macy's and the Macy's store as a Belk.
Eddie B. Holding Corp., a company owned by affiliates of Sun Capital Partners, Inc. and Golden Gate Capital, entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Eddie Bauer Holdings, Inc. for $614 million, including $328 million in debt. The price represents a 12 percent premium over where the firm's stock was trading. The deal will close in the first quarter of 2007.
Nordstrom, Inc. signed a letter of intent with General Growth Properties, Inc. to open new 140,000-square-foot stores at the Christiana Mall in Newark, Del.; at the Saint Louis Galleria in St. Louis, Mo.; and at the Kenwood Towne Centre in Cincinnati, Ohio. Nordstrom will also relocate its existing store at Fashion Place in Murray, Utah to a 140,000-square-foot location and will renovate its store at Montclair Plaza in Montclair, Calif. The changes are scheduled to take place by 2010.
Polo Ralph Lauren will launch an interactive window display at its Michigan Avenue flagship store this holiday season. The display will use RLX high-performance gear to allow shoppers to make purchases from outside the store and to take advantage of ski tips, live weather updates, interactive trail maps and style advice, among other things. The touch screen will be powered by a transparent foil applied directly to the glass. A rear-projection screen will then be used to complete the shopping experience. Ralph Lauren will also introduce touch-screen kiosks inside of its Aspen stores to tie in with the skiing theme.
Target Corp. will offer a $4 generic prescription drug program at all 1,287 of its pharmacies. The measure has been implemented to avoid confusion among Target customers and salespeople. The Sports Authority, Inc. has assumed leasehold interests in seven former Copeland Sports locations through a wholly owned subsidiary. The company also expects to obtain leasehold rights for five additional sites within the next several weeks. The Sports Authority will remodel and rebrand the stores under its name, with re-opening scheduled for the spring of 2007.
Federated Department Stores, Inc. signed an agreement to sells its Conshohocken, Pa. — based Bridal Group division for $850 million in two separate transactions. An affiliate of Leonard Green & Partners, L.P. will purchase the 269-store David's Bridal and the 10-store Priscilla of Boston businesses for $750 million. Men's Wearhouse will purchase the 511-store After Hours Formalwear business for $100 million. Both transactions are expected to close in the first quarter of 2007.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is incorporating green technologies across its store portfolio, including Wal-Mart stores and Sam's Clubs. The retailer's green features will include LED lights in exterior signs and grocery, freezer and jewelry cases, waste oil boilers to recover cooking and motor oil for heating purposes and drip irrigation for water conservation. The measures are being implemented after Wal-Mart tried them at two experimental stores in McKinney, Texas and Aurora, Colo.
SUBCHRONO, a manufacturer of high-end Swiss watches, will open its first New York store on Fifth Avenue at the Worldwide Diamond Tower. The retailer will occupy 750 square feet of space beginning January 2007. Newmark Knight Frank Retail negotiated this transaction on behalf of SUBCHRONO.
A group of Quizno's franchise operators — part of the Toasted Subs Franchisee Assocation — filed a class-action lawsuit against the sandwich chain, alleging the company forces them to overpay for ingredients but then charge too little for sandwiches for the franchisees to turn a profit.