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St. Paul, Minn. -- Paster Enterprises announced Tuesday the hiring of Mike Sturdivant as a leasing agent for the company.

In his new role, Sturdivant will develop and launch marketing strategies for PE and prospective tenants. His duties will include working with existing tenants, being active in the brokerage community and researching industry trends.

If there is one booming business inside the shopping center industry, it’s that of third-party management. 

Shopping center management — whether you’re talking operational control, marketing programs and strategies, or leasing — is growing by leaps and bounds, as owners find alternative ways to fill the coffers when new construction is at a standstill.

Wilmington, Del. -- Metro Commercial Real Estate announced that Books-A-Million has signed a lease for a 30,077-sq.-ft. former Borders located at 101 Geoffrey Drive in Christiana (Wilmington), Del.

The new Books-A-Million is expected to be open before year end.

Minneapolis -- Best Buy Co. announced Monday that it has agreed to let founder and former chairman Richard Schulze conduct due diligence and form an investment group with private equity sponsors as he tries to take the retailer private.

Best Buy said its agreement with Schulze establishes a non-exclusive, orderly process that satisfies his requests and protects the interests of shareholders.

Virginia Beach, Va. -- Divaris Real Estate Inc. announced the following lease transactions were completed for several retail tenants:

A lease extension was signed with Tidewater Finance Co. for 25,516 sq. ft. of retail space in the DRE-leased and –managed Tidewater Plaza in Virginia Beach.

Charlotte, N.C. -- CNL Crosland Commercial Real Estate announced two new tenant signings and an expansion for an existing retailer at Blakeney, a retail shopping center in south Charlotte, N.C.

Flywheel Sports is slated to open at Blakeney in January. Accessory boutique Bijuju opened earlier in November, and Creative by Nature Home doubled its square footage and moved into a new space in September.

By Andy Thomas, athomas@virtualpremise.com

By Sandra Gold Slon

Who needs an exit strategy? In this economy, most of us are aware of tenants facing difficulties in meeting their lease obligations. If we weren’t thinking about it front and center, it was brought front and center when Borders declared bankruptcy, closing hundreds of stores.

Vienna, Va. -- Jacksonville, Fla.-based Regency Centers said it has named Jack deVilliers as leasing agent in Baltimore, Maryland and the New England area. 

deVilliers will be responsible for leasing 13 operating properties, totaling 1.8 million sq. ft., in Maryland, Washington, D.C., Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Previously, deVilliers served as a retail leasing associate for commercial real estate broker KLNB Retail, handling tenant and landlord representation of new retail development projects.

The increased pace of merger and acquisition activity late in 2010, including some huge deals, suggests that 2011 will be an active year. Low interest rates, significant cash on many firms’ balance sheets, and stock prices that are low enough to attract buyers but high enough to move sellers off the sidelines all reinforce that possibility.


Eighteen months ago, the word in retail was contraction. Talk of expansion was mostly shelved, pending some kind of palpable turnaround in the economy.


Today, as 2010 comes to a close and all eyes are trained on 2011, discussion about adding stores is supplanting talk of closures. But, caution the experts, retail growth should unfold slowly and strategically, and not with the optimistic abandon of years past.