Hobby Lobby to Open 5 California Stores

Hobby Lobby with 489 stores in 40 states will be opening 5 stores in California.  It appears that at least 4 of the stores will be opening this year.  


Hobby Lobby specializes in arts and crafts, picture framing, party supplies, cards, holiday supplies, and home accessories.  Leases for the company are best suited for second generation space as they are very rent sensitive.  Given the amount of available box space considering the economic events of the last few years, I imagine they are finding many more opportunities in the marketplace.


Some information used from The Press Enterprise. 

JCPenney & Nordstrom Rack Coming to Willow Grove Park Mall

JCPenney and Nordstrom Rack will be taking portions of the former Strawbridge's at the Willow Grove Park Mall (Willow Grove, PA).  The vacant Strawbridge's has sat empty since 2006.  JCPenney will total 114,000 square feet on two floors.

Prior to the economy downturn, I personally noticed JCPenney on a number of proposed shopping center site plans.  Unfortunately, none of those stores came to fruition in the Philadelphia DMA.  So, after a few years of being dormant, JCPenney is moving forward with a very high profile location in one of the top Philadelphia markets.

Thanks to Phillyburbs.com

Dick's Goes to Staten Island

From silive.com, Dick's opened it's first Staten Island and New York City store on Friday.  The store is about 36,000 square feet and will shed the Hunting and Biking Departments because it is smaller than the normal prototype.  Dick's hopes to add those departments in the future.  


silive.com Article

Target Doing Grocery

As we all know in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, Target is expanding its grocery format at many of its stores.  


In St. Louis, Target is also making the move to convert stores.  Adding the expanded grocery ("PFresh") is not to be confused with the SuperTarget format, which is substantially bigger.  However, I know it's causing the Philadelphia area grocers and likely many around the country to take serious notice.  


The stat that caught my eye in the blog post highlighted below was Target plans to remodel 380 stores around the country this year.  So, based on news reports it appears Target's store expansion seems to primarily be headed to Canada, but their spending significant dollars domestically to update their stores with grocery items.  


For more information on the grocery industry see David Goodman's blog: Running with Equity Retail

Stltoday.com Blog Post

Kansas & Cabela's

Cabela's is coming to Kansas in the Spring of 2012.  Site work has begun on their new 80,000 SF location in Wichita.  


According to the Wichita Eagle (See article below), the new store is expected to attract between 800,000 and 1,000,000 million visitors each year.


The company is utilizing smaller prototypes to get closer to the more populated areas as opposed to the larger stores that they have historically built in more remote areas.  Their larger stores have gotten close to 200,000 square feet.  Based on my personal experience with the company, the larger stores draw from a very wide trade area, so the company is wisely placing the new stores so as not to impact existing locations.


The Wichita Eagle Article

Shoe Carnival Into Montana

Shoe Carnival is entering Montana with its first store.  One is already open in Wyoming and there are more to come in the north and west.  The company is up to 314 stores in 30 states.


The Montana store is responsible for 25 new jobs.


Shoe Carnival is currently operating in western and central Pennsylvania.  My partner, Brian Wherty, and I in cooperation with Joe Spagnola from LMS Commercial Real Estate (Lancaster, PA) have analyzed the southeastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey market at the direction of Shoe Carnival as a possible area of future expansion.


Billings Gazette Article

IKEA to Open First Colorado Store

IKEA will open its first Colorado store on July 27.  The store is in Centennial and is 415,000 SF.  It is the 38th in the United States and the 324th in the world.  
Denver Business Journal Article