NEW YORK CITY — Macy’s Inc. (NYSE: M) reported fourth-quarter results that exceeded the company’s expectations, thanks to 21 percent year-over-year growth in digital sales across all of its brands. In addition, the department store chain reported that comparable in-store sales during the period that included the holiday shopping season were down 17 percent. However, that performance beat the company’s projections, and contributed to Macy’s posting its first profitable quarter in a year, CNBC reported. Product categories such as home beauty and jewelry led the pronounced spike in digital sales, and Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette said that the company anticipates that within the next three years, it will reach $10 billion in annual online revenue. In February 2020, the company announced that it planned to close 125 underperforming stores, or about 20 percent of its total count, by early 2023. Macy’s stock price opened at $15.31 per share on Tuesday, Feb. 23, down slightly from $15.68 per share a year ago.
ATLANTA — Airbnb plans to open a technical hub in Atlanta by the end of 2021. The company did not disclose what area of Atlanta that it is going to occupy. The San Francisco-based lodging company originally made plans to open the hub in 2019 but had to stop development due to travel restrictions and the COVID-19 pandemic. In May 2020, Airbnb had to let 25 percent of its team go. Now that travel is picking up again, Airbnb has decided to move forward with its East Coast expansion. Airbnb anticipates the hub will be home to one of its product developments teams and will become the regional base for hundreds of technical and non-technical roles over time. Atlanta was the city that Airbnb choose due to many factors, including strong educational infrastructure and supporting communities of color. If any economic incentives or credits are associated with the East Coast hub location, Airbnb plans to donate them back to Atlanta for community impact initiatives.
ARLINGTON, TEXAS — Six Flags Entertainment Corp. has announced plans to reopen all 26 of its theme parks and waterparks throughout North America and is now hiring team members for the 2021 season. After shutting down in mid-March at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the Arlington-based entertainment operator reopened 21 of its 26 parks at various points in 2020, implementing mask mandates, enhanced sanitation protocols and temperature screenings. Six Flags said that it is actively working with state and government officials to secure firm opening dates for parks in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Mexico and Canada that remained closed in 2020.
By Taylor Williams The decision by Institutional Property Advisors (IPA), a division of Marcus & Millichap, to recently bring its investment sales services for the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) industrial market not only represents an opportunity to gain share of a booming market, but also to capitalize on a pronounced shift in buying patterns. COVID-19 has drastically accelerated demand for e-commerce services and industrial space on the leasing front. As investors that put new acquisitions on hold early in the pandemic regain their aggressiveness and as more capital sources diversify into the asset class, the line between requirements for institutional and private investors is growing blurrier. Ultimately, the shift in investment philosophy for industrial product in major markets boils down to private buyers targeting assets that have typically been considered institutional quality. This trend is a factor of several marketplace tendencies: the cautiousness with which institutional capital proceeds, the willingness of private investors to accept lower returns and the general mixing up of the Tier 1 industrial buyer pool. Like demand for industrial product from both tenants and the capital markets, the creeping of private buyers into the institutional space was taking place before the pandemic. But the overlap has become …
BETHESDA, MD. — Marriott International (NASDAQ: MAR) posted a net income loss of $267 million for 2020, which The Wall Street Journal reports is the hotel giant’s first annual loss since 2009. The company posted a net loss of $164 million in fourth-quarter 2020, which is a significant drop from its net income of $279 million in fourth-quarter 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic materially changed global traffic patterns for both leisure and business travelers in 2020, and Marriott’s hotels bore the brunt of the subdued demand for hotel rooms, as well as conventions and conferences. “With the global pandemic, 2020 was the most challenging year in our 93-year history,” says Stephanie Linnartz, Marriott’s group president of consumer operations, technology and emerging businesses. Linnartz, along with Tony Capuano, are overseeing Marriott’s day-to-day operations of corporate matters in the wake of president and CEO Arne Sorenson’s passing earlier this week. On April 14, 2020, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) reported its lowest travel volume of only 87,500 passengers throughout all TSA checkpoints nationwide, representing just 4 percent of passenger volume recorded on the same weekday in 2019. Average travel volume per day between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve, which is typically TSA’s busiest …
BETHESDA, MD. — Arne Sorenson, president and CEO of Marriott International (NASDAQ: MAR), died on February 15 due to complications from pancreatic cancer. Sorenson was 62. Sorenson became the third CEO in Marriott’s history in 2021. Over his time at Marriott, Sorenson put the company on a strong growth track that included the $13 billion acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts. “Arne was an exceptional executive — but more than that — he was an exceptional human being,” said J.W. Marriott, Jr., executive chairman and chairman of the board. “Arne loved every aspect of this business and relished time spent touring our hotels and meeting associates around the world. He had an uncanny ability to anticipate where the hospitality industry was headed and position Marriott for growth. But the roles he relished the most were as husband, father, brother and friend.” Sorenson was passionate about national and global issues, as he steered Marriott to make significant progress on diversity, equity and inclusion, environmental sustainability and human trafficking awareness. He had to reduce his schedule at the beginning of February to continue his cancer treatments. Stephanie Linnartz and Tony Capuano will continue to oversee day-to-day operations and corporate functions until Marriott’s …
SAN FRANCISCO — ACORE Capital, a global credit manager focused on commercial real estate lending, has raised $1 billion to launch ACORE Hospitality Partners (AHP). Backed by a group of institutions, AHP is an investment strategy focused on providing North American hotel operators with rescue capital to navigate the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. AHP’s strategy is to originate and acquire structured hotel debt investments, including senior and mezzanine loans, B-notes and preferred equity. The investment strategy will invest across the entire spectrum of hotel types, ranging from high-end luxury resorts to smaller limited-service hotels, focusing on assets in high-barrier markets with compelling rebound characteristics. “The pandemic has had a disproportionate and historic impact on the lodging industry leading to unprecedented distress and liquidity issues for hotel owners,” says Warren de Haan, managing partner at ACORE. “We formed ACORE Hospitality Partners to solve this liquidity crisis by providing hotel owners with the capital they require to continue operations and keep people working.” AHP will benefit from ACORE’s extensive experience originating and managing debt investments. Since its inception in 2015, ACORE has originated more than $4.2 billion of hospitality investments. The ACORE team includes more than 80 commercial real estate finance professionals that …
WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS Health Corp. (NYSE: CVS) reported fourth-quarter revenue of $69.5 billion, exceeding the $68.7 billion projected by analysts, as the Rhode Island-based drugstore and pharmacy expanded its COVID-19 testing and vaccination services. CVS also reported quarterly net income of $975 million, down from $1.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2019. In addressing the earnings report, CEO Karen Lynch said that the company expects to roll out a wider range of healthcare services in 2021. The stock price of CVS, which operates about 10,000 stores across the United States, opened at $73.57 on Tuesday, Feb. 26, up from $71.19 per share a year ago.
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Walker & Dunlop has acquired FourPoint Investment Sales Partners, an Austin-based brokerage firm specializing in student housing and traditional multifamily properties. The FourPoint team of Chris Epp, Chis Bancroft, Kevin Dufour, Matthew Chase, Craig Miller and Kyle Peco will lead and scale Walker & Dunlop’s student housing investment sales division, with a goal of growing sales volume to $25 billion by 2025 for the Maryland-based company. The two firms have partnered as correspondents on student housing deals in the past.
ATLANTA — Chicken Salad Chick, a Southern-inspired, fast-casual chicken salad restaurant chain, will relocate its headquarters from Auburn, Ala., to Atlanta. The move is slated to take place during the first quarter. Chicken Salad Chick’s new office will be located in the city’s Vinings district at the Overlook II building, which is situated at 2839 Paces Ferry Road in Atlanta. The company’s new office is 21 miles north of the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Scott Deviney, president and CEO of Chicken Salad Chick, says the company’s decision to move to Atlanta is the next step in its growth model. “This relocation positions Chicken Salad Chick to scale at an accelerated rate and meet aggressive growth goals, while allowing us to broaden our vision for the future,” says Deviney. “We’ve seen increased interest from Atlanta’s diverse and talented workforce, and the city’s airport allows us swift access to prospective vendors and a growing pool of interested franchisees.” Chicken Salad Chick isn’t the first restaurant chain to target Atlanta in order to grow. In September, Papa John’s announced it was moving its regional headquarters to Atlanta. The pizza giant chose The Battery Atlanta for its new offices. The new headquarters will house …