SAN LEANDRO, CALIF. — Marcus & Millichap has brokered the sale of a retail property located at E. 14th St. in San Leandro. A limited liability company bought the 22,520-square-foot property, which is occupied by CVS/pharmacy, for $4.1 million. Fabio Sangiorgi of Marcus & Millichap’s Palo Alto office represented the buyer in the transaction. The name of the seller was not released.
NORTH LAS VEGAS, NEV. — Conn’s Inc., a Houston-based furniture and specialty home goods retailer, has opened its 100th store. The new, 52,000-square-foot centennial Conn’s HomePlus store is located in North Las Vegas. The company is on schedule to open between 15 and 18 stores in its current fiscal year, which ends on Jan. 31. Conn’s plans to open as many as 25 stores in its 2017 fiscal year. Conn’s is a furniture and specialty retailer currently operating 100 retail locations in 12 states: Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.
SEATTLE — Online retail giant Amazon has opened its first brick-and-mortar bookstore, Amazon Books, at University Village in north Seattle. The store opens 20 years after Amazon began selling books — severely discounted compared to traditional retailers — over the Internet. The 5,500-square-foot store, which offers as many as 6,000 titles and an additional 2,000 square feet of storage, is a physical extension of the company website, combining the benefits of online pricing with traditional book shopping, the company told the Associated Press in a statement. Inside the store, shoppers will find book displays that contain cards with ratings and reviews. Shoppers can buy the book now, or save the review card and purchase the book online later. The store will not be a location to pick up Amazon orders. While the store will showcase Amazon’s Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets and Fire TV streaming-media devices, it will focus first on being a bookstore. All books will face outward, displaying their entire covers rather than only the spines showing.
DUBLIN, CALIF. — Ross Stores, Inc. has appointed Brian Morrow as president and chief merchandising officer of dd’s Discounts, effective Dec. 7. Morrow will report directly to Barbara Rentler, the company’s CEO, and be responsible for directing all aspects of merchandising at dd’s Discounts. Morrow has more than 30 years of merchandising management experience including roles with Macy’s West, Mervyn’s, Macy’s North/Marshall Field’s and May Company. Most recently, he served as president and chief merchandising officer for Stein Mart Inc.
CARROLLTON, TEXAS — NewQuest Properties is set to expand the 154,863-square-foot Carrollton Town Center, where a $7 million redevelopment is attracting the first stores in Texas for several Asian brands. NewQuest bought the shopping center at 2540 Old Denton Road in spring 2014 and began redevelopment in June of the same year. The Houston-based developer has acquired 4.7 acres across the street for a second phase. Engineering work has begun for the shopping center’s expansion at the intersection of President George Bush Turnpike and Old Denton Road. New tenants include California-based 99 Ranch Market, a specialty grocer catering to the Asian-American community, Gen Korean BBQ House and Kula, a revolving sushi bar which will total 3,111 square feet.
FORT WORTH, TEXAS — Anthracite Realty Partners and Bennett Benner Partners have selected Balfour Beatty Construction to provide construction services for a high-rise in downtown Fort Worth. Balfour Beatty is engaged in shaping the project’s final scope and contract, which includes the core, shell and interior finish-out of the 25-story, 323,415-square-foot Class A commercial office tower at 640 Taylor St., which will be known as 640 Taylor. The mixed-use tower will include ground-floor retail shops, a 12th-floor lobby and conference center and an eatery featuring a 3,400-square-foot dining deck overlooking Sundance Square and Burnett Park. Adjacent to the eatery will be a 3,200-square-foot roof garden. Scheduled for completion in December 2017, 640 Taylor will be the seventh tallest building in Fort Worth and the first one to exceed 200 feet since 2009. The project will include 900 new parking spaces.
EL PASO, TEXAS — Freedom Crossing at Fort Bliss, the first open-air shopping center on a military installation, will be opening a Cabela’s seasonal store in time for holiday shopping. The 10,000-square-foot store will also include access to the full spectrum of Cabela’s products in-store via Cabelas.com. The Freedom Crossing Cabela’s location will offer soft goods, shoes, hunting gear, outdoors equipment and gifts. In addition to Freedom Crossing at Fort Bliss, Cabela’s will open seasonal locations this year with The Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) at Fort Hood, Texas and Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.
HOUSTON — Marcus & Millichap has arranged the sale of Devon Office Park, a 26,735-square-foot building located in Houston. Derek Hargrove and Justin Miller of Marcus & Millichap’s Houston office marketed the property on behalf of the seller, a Houston-based private investor. Juan Cuevas, a senior associate in Marcus & Millichap’s Houston office, secured the buyer, an out-of-state private investor utilizing a 1031 tax-deferred exchange. Devon Office Park is located at 17300 El Camino Real in Houston.
COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS — Skanska USA has been awarded a $21 million contract with Texas A&M University to oversee the construction of the Agriculture & Life Science Building 4. The project broke ground on Nov. 13 and it will be completed in February 2017. The five-story, 80,000-square-foot building will house the university’s Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences. The first three floors will include offices, conference rooms and dry work areas. The top two floors will include teaching and wet research laboratories. Kirskey Architecture is project architect.
NEW YORK CITY — A partnership between Adam America, Slate Property Group and China Vanke has acquired a development site, located at 10 Nevins in downtown Brooklyn, for $50 million. The site is approved for plans to develop a mixed-used project with 184 residential units and ground-floor retail space. Ofer Cohen and Melissa Warren of TerraCRG were the sole brokers in the transaction. The name of the seller was not released.