Company news

Asheville, N.C. — Earth Fare, a privately held grocery chain that sells natural and organic products, says it will shutter all of its stores and launch a liquidation inventory sale. The grocer lists 46 stores on its website, the bulk of which are in Florida and its home state of North Carolina. Earth Fare also has five stores in the Midwest and a few others in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia and South Carolina. Earth Fare is also shuttering its corporate office in Asheville. The Wall Street Journal reported that Earth Fare, …

0 FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail

Los Angeles — Forever 21 Inc. has entered into an agreement to sell its stores to a group of landlords led by Simon Property Group Inc., Brookfield Property Partners LP and Authentic Brands Group LLC for $81 million, according to papers filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware. The buyers have made a deposit with an ESCROW agent in the amount of $13.5 million. The group, known as SPARC Group F21, is stalking horse bidders, meaning other companies have until Friday, Feb. 7 to place any counteroffers. If any such bids are …

0 FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail

Vienna, Va. — The Ratner Cos., the parent company of salon concepts such as Hair Cuttery, Bubbles and Salon Cielo, plans to trim its 844-store portfolio by 10 percent. The company plans to maintain a presence in all existing markets as it looks to shift resources to its best-performing salons. Ratner Cos. cites “intense competition and rising operating costs,” as well as shifting consumer shopping methods, as the basis for its decision. The firm has engaged in discussions with landlords to renegotiate terms or exit some of its leases. In …

0 FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail

Philadelphia — Five Below Inc. plans to open 180 stores this year, which would grow the Philadelphia-based retailer’s footprint by 20 percent. The announcement came during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call. Specific plans for the openings were not disclosed. At the same time, Joel Anderson, president and CEO of Five Below, said the company also acquired the e-commerce platform, fulfillment operation and certain other assets of Hollar.com.

0 FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail

Framingham, Mass. — Bose Corp. will close all of its 54 stores in the U.S., as well as many remaining locations in Australia, Japan and Europe in the coming months, totaling 119 brick-and-mortar locations. The Framingham-based company, which specializes in audio engineering, said the closures are due to “dramatic” shifts to online shopping. Bose opened its first store in 1993 and currently has its biggest concentration of stores in the Northeast (10), Southern California (nine) and Florida (seven). “Originally, our retail stores gave people a way to experience, test and talk …

0 FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail

Fort Worth, Texas — Pier 1 Imports Inc., a home goods retailer based in Fort Worth, has announced its intention to shutter up to 450 stores, which represents nearly half of its current store count of 936. The retailer also plans to close a select number of distribution centers and reduce its corporate expenses, which includes corporate layoffs. Pier 1 says that its efforts will help right-size the company’s omni-channel operations and allow it to move forward with an “appropriately sized store footprint.” Pier 1 has hired a third-party liquidator …

0 FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail

New York City — Newmark Group Inc., a division of New York City-based real estate firm Newmark Knight Frank (NKF), has acquired Harper Dennis Hobbs Holdings Ltd. (HDH), a London-based firm specializing in retail acquisitions. NKF operates numerous offices across the United States, and the acquisition of the HDH opens opportunities to service European tenants seeking access to North American consumers. More than 50 employees, including 30 brokers and staff, will join Newmark Group as a result of the acquisition, though the firm will continue to operate as Harper Dennis …

0 FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail
Faris Lee and MTN Retail Advisors logos

Irvine, Calif. and Salt Lake City — Faris Lee Investments and MTN Retail Advisors, a grocer-specialized data collection and analytics provider, have entered into a partnership to combine Faris Lee’s retail, real estate, finance and investment advisory services with MTN’s proprietary technology, which includes artificial intelligence (AI) machine learning. MTN currently has data on 28,000 active grocers across the United States and expects that number to grow to 40,000 over the next 18 months. The partnership between Irvine-based Faris Lee Investments and Salt Lake City-based MTN Retail Advisors will also …

0 FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail

Maryland and Virginia — United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI) will sell 13 of its 43 Shoppers Food & Pharmacy locations in a continued effort to reduce its retail footprint. The company will sell the stores to three grocery operators, which will run the stores under their respective banners. UNFI will also close four Shoppers Food locations by the end of January 2020. UNFI agreed to not renew three of the leases while the fourth lease will be canceled pursuant to agreement with the landlord. The four stores being closed are …

0 FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail

Chattanooga, Tenn. — CBL Properties (NYSE: CBL) will suspend its stock dividends for 2019 and possibly through year-end 2020 in the face of retail bankruptcies, store closures and corporate restructurings of tenants within its portfolio. The Chattanooga-based shopping center and mall owner’s board of directors will review the suspension quarterly but doesn’t expect the dividends to resume in 2020. CBL announced the decision following a review of current taxable income projections for 2019 and 2020. Unpaid dividends on CBL’s preferred stock shall accrue without interest. The suspension includes CBL’s common …

0 FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail