Retail

HOUSTON-Kroger opens its latest Signature Store, a 63,373-sf location in the 130,000-sf Sterling Ridge Village. The grocer is one of three anchors in The Woodlands' fifth retail center, which is 90% leased.

GREENWICH, CT-Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc., a retail REIT, reported a slight increase in funds from operations for fiscal year 2000 and a drop in net income due mainly to bankruptcy filings by some of its tenants.

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, CA-Local retailer of snowboards and skates is expanding with a new lease for a location at the Gotcha Glacier Project in Anaheim, which is scheduled for completion in 2002.

CLEARWATER, FL-The 102-year-old, Miami-based department store chain is taking 65,000 sf for 15 years at the 90,011-sf Village at Countryside where it will house a Burdines Furniture Gallery, 80 miles west of Downtown Orlando. The estimated value of the lease is $12 million. The store sold its 180,000-sf location at the nearby Clearwater Mall for $4.75 million or $26.39 per sf.

ORLANDO-The official Orange County real estate records show the three retailers purchased individual tracts at the planned 1.3-million sf Mall of Millenia in southwest Orlando. But in reality, Forbes Taubman Orlando LLC Millenia, the mall's developer, bought 83 acres from the mixed-use venture's master developer, Orlando Southwest Partners, for about $19 million or $228,915 per acre ($5.26 per sf), then deeded back two 13-acre parcels and an estimated nine-acre parcel to the retailers.

EUGENE, OR-The plans, submitted to the city by a local family here, do not name the would-be occupant, but its size and expandability match plans the ubiquitous warehouse retailer has in the neighboring city of Springfield.

NEWHALL, CA-Curtain is raised on restored theater, which local officials hope will ignite more development and redevelopment in their quaint but tired central business district.

ASPEN, CO-A British pub-theme restaurant holds the distinction of being the first eatery lined up for Hines Resorts' $230-million Aspen Highlands Village. Lawn bowling to direct access to the ski slopes is everyday fare at the signed restaurant.