The Cheesecake Factory: The company posted strong sales growth in 2021 despite a surge in COVID cases late in the year. Sales at locations open at least one year increased by 33.8% year over year in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2021 and by 7.7% compared with the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2019. In 2021, about 30% of sales came from off-premises orders. The company opened 14 units last year, including for its Blanco Cocina + Cantina and Culinary Dropout brands in Denver and for its North Italia brand in Orlando. The restaurant operator ended 2021 with $430 million of liquidity, including $190 million in cash.

Ebisu Life Store: The chain, which sells Japanese merchandise from kitchenware and snacks to beauty products and electronics, will open at Mall of America, adding to its U.S. locations in Aurora, Colorado; Rockville, Maryland; and New York City’s SoHo.

Five Below: The teen retailer signed a lease for a 10,000-square-foot, two-level store at E-Walk, Tishman Realty’s retail complex in New York City’s Times Square. Five Below’s lease coincides with the complex’s planned spring 2022 opening of Target and the completion of a $60 million capital improvement and renovation, including of Regal’s U.S. flagship theater. JLL represented Five Below.

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Forte Forte: The Italian luxury brand will open its first U.S. store, on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. The bohemian brand’s existing retail stores are in London, Milan, Paris, Madrid and Rome. It sells its merchandise through 80 wholesale accounts in the U.S. and wants to grow through its own stores.

Grace Loves Lace: The Australian maker of dresses for weddings and special occasions will open a 3,000-square-foot store on Chestnut Street in downtown Philadelphia. It already operates 15 U.S. stores, four Australian stores and outposts in Canada and the U.K.

Honey Birdette: The Australian lingerie and swimwear brand’s first East Coast store will open at Miami’s Aventura Mall. The company has five stores in California, mostly in the Los Angeles area.

Kentucky Fried Chicken: The chain is going high tech as it expands into urban markets like St. Louis; Baldwin Park, California; and New York City’s Chinatown, Queens and Harlem. The smaller-than-average-stores encourage off-premises transactions with drive-thru lanes dedicated for mobile orders; a digital cubby system for mobile order pickups and delivery couriers; curbside delivery; and self-serve kiosks. The company will open 55 stores this year.

Madewell: J.Crew’s denim-focused offshoot is still growing. The brand will open in Acadian Village in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, this spring. It will be Madewell’s second location in the state, after New Orleans. Madewell, which operates 145 stores, also recently opened in the Galleria in Edina, Minnesota. The brand also is moving into a larger store in downtown Philadelphia.

The UPS Store: In Phoenix, the company opened the first of its redesigned stores that will serve as one-stop-shops for small business owners, including more open space. The Phoenix store features smart lockers where customers can access packages any time.

United Apparel Liquidators: The Nashville-based discount fashion chain, known for its social media savvy and cheap prices, is opening a store in Houston. It has units in Metairie, Louisiana;  Hattiesburg, Mississippi; Austin; and Nashville, as well as its suburb Brentwood.

Wakefern Food Corp.: The U.S. independent supermarket cooperative — whose about 50 members operate 360 ShopRite, Price Rite Marketplace and other supermarkets in the Northeast — is testing unmanned store technology at some locations.