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Whole Foods seems to have figured out that a mall setting shouldn’t be a real estate deterrent. In fact, it might be a real asset.

The grocer has been stretching its site-selection wings over the last couple of years, but has positively taken flight with its latest opening – a 32,000-sq.-ft. store at the Fashion Island regional shopping center in Orange County, Calif.

If Hong Kong is part of your global expansion initiatives, be prepared to pay the freight.

The most recent retail rent report from CBRE Group labeled Hong Kong as the world’s most expensive retail destination, bettering New York City (No. 2) and Sydney, Australia (No. 3).

That’s not a bad headline leading into RECon 2012 next week in Las Vegas. Not that I can take credit for the verbiage; “Regional malls alive and kicking” is a report issued by SNL Real Estate, Charlottesville, Va.

According to SNL’s information, despite stalled growth in household income, regional malls have held their own, boosted by ongoing consumer interest in luxury items. In fact, occupancy levels at domestic regional malls owned by U.S. REITs moved to 93.2% by the end of 2011, from 91% at the end of 2009. That’s recovery for you.

Chain Store Age editor-in-chief Marianne Wilson and I go to great lengths to report new store openings on Chainstoreage.com. We pore through convoluted retail financial statements – sometimes twice daily – to uncover news that a chain has its sights set on even a little net new store growth for the year ahead.

I reported earlier today that Urban Outfitters, despite a challenging fourth quarter that saw profits cut nearly in half from the year before, was planning as many as 60 new stores in fiscal 2013.

If you are a shopping center owner or manager, I’m talking to you! It’s that time of year again – when Chain Store Age begins collecting data to publish our annual report on America’s top developers and fastest-growing acquirers and third-party managers.

Results of the survey, which is now in its 23rd year, are published in the April/May edition of Chain Store Age, with bonus distribution to the International Council of Shopping Centers’ RECon show in Las Vegas in late May.

It seemed like such a great idea at the time. On Nov. 17, we reported that mall owner Forest City had hatched this innovative plan to monitor shopping patterns at two of its shopping centers by tracking patrons’ cell phones during the holiday 2011 season, beginning Black Friday.

On March 22, 2011, Canadian retailer tb!s The Bargain Shop named top American retail executive Beryl “Jack” Buley as its new president and CEO.  A week later, on March 29, I sat down with Buley to discuss his new position for our then-upcoming June/July issue.  Eight weeks later, he was dead.

As Hurricane Irene raged up the East Coast over the weekend of Aug. 26-28, Apple -- like many retailers strategically positioned in the storm’s path -- turned out the lights on its New York-area stores, including all three Manhattan locations, New Jersey and Connecticut, to shield itself from Irene’s wrath.

But on the same day it temporarily shuttered its East Coast stores, Apple officially opened locations in North Carolina, Arkansas and, yes, France.