Thursday, December 12, 2013, 11:21am

By James Cronin

Banker & Tradesman Staff Writer

A joint venture led by Boston-based Berkshire Group plans to start construction on two 22-story towers with apartments and retail space in Boston's Seaport District in April.

The multifamily investor and developer paid $72 million to Seaport Square master developers Morgan Stanley and Boston Global Investors (BGI) for the Seaport Boulevard parcel.

The $600 million towers called One Seaport Square will include 832 luxury apartments above 260,000 square feet of retail space.

The new ownership group led by Berkshire includes BGI, the master developer of Seaport Square, which will own and develop the residential component of the project. WS Development will develop, own and manage the retail component of One Seaport Square.

The Boston Redevelopment Authority board of directors recently gave final approvals for the project. The project is slated to be completed in 2016.

"One Seaport Square will be our largest project in Boston and it is the keystone project for the Innovation District," John Hynes, BGI CEO and managing partner, said in a statement.

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22-Story Residential Towers Slated For Seaport Boston

By Matt Rocheleau, Boston.com Staff

Officials plan to break ground this week on a $150 million mixed-used development in Allston.

The 350,000 square-foot project calls for 325 apartments, up to 45,000 square feet of retail space, a parking garage with space for up to 225 cars, residential amenities, and outdoor space to be built at the intersection of Western Avenue and North Harvard Street.

Parts of the development will stand between six and nine stories tall. The company leading the project, Samuels and Associates, expects to finish construction by fall 2015.

A groundbreaking ceremony Friday afternoon will bring together development and leaders from the city of Boston and Harvard University, which owns the property abutting its business school campus and is planning a series of projects for the neighborhood over the next 10 years.

The development, Barrys Corner Retail and Residential Commons, has been named after the intersection where it will be built.

Meanwhile, a group of residents recently launched a public campaign to have the intersections name changed from Barrys Corner to Allston Square.

Through an online neighborhood discussion forum, leaders of a group, called the Allston Square Association, sent messages recently proposing the name change and announced they are trying to gather signatures on a petition supporting their effort.

We would very much like to have you sign the petition to name this new retail and residential commons Allston Square after the great painter Washington Allston, who gave our community its name instead of Barrys Corner named after no one, the group said in an online message.

However, to honor the good folks who lost their homes 45 years ago when the BRA and the City bulldozed their little community and built the Charlesview Apartments, we would like to name the Grove, which stands on the very spot where their homes once stood, Barrys Corner Memorial Grove, in their memory, the message added.

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Developer to break ground on $150m mixed-use development in Allston

A local developer is taking steps to build an outlet mall in South Anchorage.

On a 27-acre swath of wetlands southwest of the intersection at 100th Avenue and C Street, the developer, JL Properties, is angling to provide 200,000 square feet of retail space for dozens of outlet shops.

The company originally bought the land last spring. From there, the question was what to do with it, said Leonard Hyde, one of the principals of JL Properties.

With little experience in the outlet business, the company looked to a group called Outlets of the Pacific, Hyde said. The group had been working to bring an outlet mall to Anchorage for several years, he said, but a large, well placed plot of land had failed to surface.

"It struck us that this one could be a possibility," Hyde said.

The location is across from Target and the Cabela's store now under construction.

The first phase of the development is estimated to cost about $70 million, Hyde said. The company is still weighing whether to commit to building an additional 200,000 square feet of space, which would be carried out in two phases.

Hyde did not say which name brands may be included in the mall. But he said the retail landscape will "look very similar to the new outlets you're seeing around the country."

Construction is scheduled to start next summer, headed toward an opening date of Oct. 1, 2015, Hyde said.

Anchorage has long awaited its first outlet mall. The malls are popular across the country for their big discounts on overstocked or undersold goods from the nation's largest retail chains.

Continued here:
Outlet mall with dozens of shops proposed for South Anchorage

Retail real estate brokers and leasing agents including representatives of the American Dream project in the Meadowlands sounded optimistic about filling empty and prospective store spaces Monday as the industry gathered in New York City for an annual deal-making conference.

Brokers said they are seeing pre-recession levels of leasing activity, and developers of North Jersey properties said they are encouraged by the amount of interest they are seeing in their available retail spaces.

Things are certainly better than they were a few years ago, said George Jacobs, president of development firm Jacobs Enterprises of Clifton. Jacobs said the firms Clifton and Ridgewood retail properties are 100 percent leased and he is seeing strong interest in new urban mixed use developments in Newark and Bloomfield. The firm and its partners broke ground on a retail and residential project in Bloomfield on Monday.

Jacobs and more than 7,500 retail real estate professionals gathered at the Hilton New York hotel Monday for the two-day conference hosted by the International Council of Shopping Centers. Attendance at the conference increased about 15 percent this year compared to 2012.

One of the rare mega malls currently under way, the American Dream projects agents were at the conference to meet with prospective tenants. The projects leasing team had a meeting room in an adjacent hotel and were conducting meetings throughout the day Monday.

Don Ghermezian, president of Triple Five, the developer of American Dream, said during a break in meetings that the mall is attracting a lot of leasing interest, although the company is not yet able to announce tenants. We have eight or nine leasing agents talking to us right now he said, gesturing toward the crowded meeting room.

Michael Kercheval, president and chief executive of the shopping center council said attendance at the New York conference usually is a barometer for the health of the retail real estate industry. The 15 percent increase in attendance this year bodes very well for our industry in 2014, he said.

Chuck Lanyard, president of The Goldstein Group, a retail brokerage firm in Paramus, said he uses a different measure to gauge the industrys robustness - how crowded the aisles are at the conference. If at 12 noon the aisles are too crowded to walk through, thats a good sign, and they were, Lanyard said.

In addition to being more crowded than last year, the mood at the conference is more upbeat, Lanyard said, with deals being done.

Most of the deals being negotiated at the conference involve repositioned properties rather than new developments.

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Retail representatives, inluding American Dream's builder, are optomistic on filling space

The new owners of the former Christian Science Reading Room building in downtown Buffalo have begun work to convert the historic three-story structure into a mixture of residential, office and retail space to add to the redevelopment of the 500 block of Main Street.

Peter and Rebecca McCauley will spend more than $600,000 on the renovation of 483 Main St., at Mohawk Street, after acquiring the 6,200-square-foot building located near the new headquarters of the Martin Group advertising and marketing firm, and architectural firm Carmina Wood Morris for $230,000.

Plans call for a luxury apartment on the third floor, with access to an outdoor living space on the building's flat roof. The second floor will be a combination of residential and office space, and the first floor will have a boutique retail shop. Workers from Lehigh Construction already began asbestos abatement and deconstruction on the interior, and the building should be ready for its first tenants by June 1, Rebecca McCauley said. The property, formerly called the Hudson Building after the original architects, Hudson & Hudson, is part of the 500 Block local historical preservation district, so the McCauleys have applied for state and national historic tax credits. This is the first such project for the couple, both Amherst natives who moved from the area when they married but later returned. Rebecca McCauley, 50, is an attorney and federal court clerk in Buffalo, while her 51-year-old husband is the president of Orchard Park-based manufacturer McGard LLC, started by his father nearly 50 years ago.

The couple live on a working farm in Orchard Park. I've been anxious to get involved in the rebirth of the City of Buffalo for several years, Rebecca MaCauley said. They bid unsuccessfully in 2005 on a building adjacent to the new Zeptometrix headquarters on Main Street.

We stumbled upon this building early last spring and just were delighted that we could be a part of the rebirth of the city, she said. It's just such a wonderfully exciting time.

She said they want to use the project to give work opportunities to up-and-coming young and returning professionals. For example, her marketing plan was developed by a woman who is trying to return to the marketing world after taking time off to raise a family much like Rebecca McCauley returned to law school after raising her own family while the build-out of the second and third floors is being created by a pair of young designers who are finishing up their master's degrees.

email: jepstein@buffnews.com

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New owners are thrilled to restore 438 Main St. in Buffalo

By: Krista Angela M. Montealegre, InterAksyon.com December 12, 2013 12:43 PM

Japan's Uniqlo is one of the foreign brands that set up shop in the Philippines through a partnership with the SM group.

InterAksyon.com means BUSINESS

MANILA Foreign brands are flooding the Philippine retail market this holiday season to capitalize on higher consumer spending in one of Asia's fastest-growing economies, according to a property consultancy firm.

In a report, CBRE Philippines said 13 international retailers opened shop in the country in the third quarter.

"With elevated consumption spending, business partnerships between foreign brands and local entrepreneurs are expected to yield profitable returns," CBRE said.

The Philippines economy has grown at a record pace of 7.4 percent in the first nine months of the year. Consumer spending accounts for two-thirds of the economy.

"Local retail businesses anticipate upbeat sales while European companies see the potential in the local retail market. This in turn has put pressure on mall operators to expedite the completion of construction works before the start of the Christmas season shopping," CBRE said.

FamilyMart, a joint venture between Japanese firm Itochu and SIAL CVS Retailers Inc of the Rustans and Ayala groups, continue to boost its convenience store count in business districts to cater to the needs of the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry.

The Bistro Group is bringing Chuck E. Cheeses, the largest family entertainment chain in the United States, to the Philippines with the maiden branch to rise in Glorietta.

Original post:
More foreign retail brands setting up shop amid booming PH consumer market

Fas Trac General Contractors Inc. is a Class A commercial construction company that has been in business for over a decade. Our expertise lies in constructing office and retail buildings, restaurants, tenant space build outs, as well as high end medical and dental offices in Richmond, Virginia and the surrounding area. We have been able to prove ourselves as one of Richmond's most reputable commercial construction companies.Fas Trac General Contractorstakes great pride in its jobs and strives to be our communities' first choice in commercial general contracting.

To provide our customers with the highest in quality construction. To meet contract deadlines while keeping the quality and workmanship of our projects a top priority. To ensure our customers complete satisfaction with every aspect of the services that we have delivered and with the professional manner in which they were delivered. To be committed to our employees and their personal and professional growth. To continue to achieve profitand growth within the company that will enable us to grow and become an industry leader in the world of commercial construction.

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Commercial General Contractors Richmond VA | Commercial ...

What size building or store do you need? When planning your retail store, the amount of selling space will be one of the most important factors in selecting a location. It is can also be one of the most difficult to determine.

As with any new business, most of your assumptions will be based on industry research and comparing similar stores operating in similar locations. To get an estimate on how much selling space your store must have, divide the planned sales volume by your industry's sales per square foot.

Sales Volume Sales per Square Foot = Selling Space

Let's say you believe your proposed book store will do $250,000 per year in sales and market data says the average sales-per-square-foot in a book store is $150. By plugging those numbers into our formula, the amount of selling space you will need is approximately 1666 square feet.

Besides selling space, remember to factor in extra square feet for an office area, stockroom, storage, and/or bathrooms. Although you may want room to grow, keep the size of the building close to your store's needs. A big store takes more inventory to fill and an empty looking store may not attract customers.

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What Size Building or Store Do I Need? - Calculating Retail ...

by WBDG Staff

Last updated: 06-02-2009

The Joint Use Retail space types are stores used for the sale of products and services. Joint Use Retail space types may include news and book stands, flower shops, convenience stores, travel agencies, credit unions, dry cleaning services, shoe shine stands, barber and beauty shops, print shops, courier mail shops, retail of clothing or other hard goods, and similar applications.

Features that are not included in this space type are: dry cleaning services, cashier windows, vaults, built-in safes, drive-through windows, or pneumatic tube systems, barber and beauty shops, and print shops. Some types of leased spaces may be more characteristic of other space types, such as offices for insurance agencies (Office) and pharmacies (Health Care).

Unique to Joint Use Retail space types is the integration of aesthetics into the entrances, windows, and retail areas within the space that help designate the space as commercial, and that can be easily distinguished from areas of the space that are accessible only to retail employees. Typical features of Joint Use Retail space types include the list of applicable design objectives elements as outlined below. For a complete list and definitions of the design objectives within the context of whole building design, click on the titles below.

The following building program is representative of Joint Use Retail space types.

JOINT USE RETAIL

The following diagram illustrates representative tenant plans.

For GSA, the unit costs for Joint Use Retail space types are based on the construction quality and design features in the following table (PDF 52 KB, 4 pgs). This information is based on GSA's benchmark interpretation and could be different for other owners.

The following agencies and organizations have developed codes and standards affecting the design of Joint Use Retail space types. Note that the codes and standards are minimum requirements. Architects, engineers, and consultants should consider exceeding the applicable requirements whenever possible.

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Joint Use Retail | Whole Building Design Guide

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Brenda Priddy

Brenda Priddy has more than 10 years of crafting and design experience, as well as more than six years of professional writing experience. Her work appears in online publications such as Donna Rae at Home, Five Minutes for Going Green and Daily Mayo. Priddy also writes for Archstone Business Solutions and holds an Associate of Arts in English from McLennan Community College.

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Planning the arrangement and placement of merchandise and other items inside a retail building is one of the most important parts of operating a retail store. With the wrong design, a company can lose sales by having customers who are confused with the layout or who are unable to find what they are looking for. A well-arranged retail space can even help customers spend more because they are attracted to more expensive items. The planning process will take several days or weeks, and it should not be rushed.

Use the measuring tape to chart the dimensions of the retail space. Create a to-scale diagram of the area on graph paper, including all windows, doors and unmovable objects, such as columns and counter tops. Make several copies of this bare draft.

Read all regulations for the retail space including building codes and fire codes so you understand the limitations of the space. Some regulations may include rules regarding how close together merchandise can be and how much space is required near doors or windows.

Look at other retail stores of similar size and shape to help formulate a plan for your own space. You can also look at retail design magazines for inspiration.

Take one of the copies of the retail space and create an initial plan for the placement of merchandise, storage and any other features that your retail space needs. Consider where you want to place featured items and arrange storage near the back of the store or away from prime shopping space.

Place large cardboard boxes inside the store to simulate the appearance of the space according to your drawing. Make any adjustments as necessary, such as widening the aisles, adding additional counter space or moving featured display areas to a more prominent location.

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How to Plan Retail Store Space | eHow