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Simon Expands Its Portfolio With 100-Acre Nashville Project and Gains Full Ownership of Taubman

Simon plans to build a 100-acre mixed-use center outside Nashville. Sagefield will feature boutique shops, farm-to-table restaurants, an organic market, entertainment venues, health-and-wellness concepts and outdoor spaces. The REIT said it will combine “bespoke retail, culinary artistry and design excellence” to create a “luxury lifestyle destination.” Simon co-president of North American real estate Eric Sadi said: “Our vision is Sagefield becomes a destination unlike any other, one that embodies the very best of the region’s allure coupled with a thoughtful blend of upscale boutique shopping, exceptional dining, elevated hospitality and appealing lifestyle offerings.”

Simon is undertaking the project in partnership with hotelier and restaurateur Sam Fox’s Author & Edit Hospitality and Nashville-based real estate investment manager AJ Capital Partners. Simon previously announced that it and AJ Capital would build Nashville Premium Outlets in Thompson’s Station, south of the city. The pair have updated the plans and now plan the Sagefield mixed-use project there instead. Simon said the collaboration with Author & Edit Hospitality will yield a luxury hotel with restaurants, a spa, a members-only sports and social club and “sophisticated” amenities. Elsewhere in the Nashville area, Simon operates Opry Mills and The Mall at Green Hills.

Simon Purchases Remaining Stake in Taubman

Simon is now the sole owner of Taubman Realty Group, whose retail portfolio encompasses more than 20 properties. Simon just closed on the remaining 12% ownership stake in Taubman that it didn’t already control. In exchange, Taubman received 5.06 million limited partnership units in Simon. In 2020, Simon bought an 80% ownership stake in Taubman and the Taubman family sold about one-third of its ownership interest.

4 Retailers Reimagine Spaces With Store-Within-a-Store Experiments

Amazon is testing a store-in-a-store concept at a Whole Foods Market in Pennsylvania, while Ikea is doing the same at 10 Best Buy stores in Florida and Texas. These moves follow an announcement this summer that big-box retailer Target and cosmetics retailer Ulta Beauty will end their store-in-a-store partnership next August. Other duos operating now include Sephora within Kohl’s and Petco within Lowe’s.

Amazon Tests Tech-Enabled Store-Within-a-Store at Whole Foods

A Whole Foods Market in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, has become a testing ground for an Amazon store-within-a-store concept. Amazon is Whole Foods’ parent company. Customers can shop Whole Foods shelves for the brand’s natural and organic groceries as usual but now also can use touchscreens and QR codes around the store to shop online for other groceries and essentials from Amazon. And in a new 10,000-square-foot, on-site microfulfillment center, robots and humans prepare the online Amazon orders. Shoppers check out as usual for the Whole Foods purchases and pick up the Amazon items at a pickup counter.

Amazon said: “As we gather customer feedback from this first location, we plan to refine and expand this offering to additional stores over time.”

Ikea x Best Buy Pairs Home Furnishings and Appliances

Ikea has introduced its first store-within-a-store as part of a previously announced partnership with Best Buy. Ikea shops are now open at six Best Buy stores in Florida and Texas. Another four are on tap for Best Buy stores in those two states.

The concept pairs Ikea home furnishings with Best Buy appliances, enabling customers to design and shop for kitchens and laundry rooms. Staffed by Ikea and Best Buy workers, each shop measures roughly 1,000 square feet, according to Axios, which also reported that customers can order from Ikea’s full inventory for delivery or pickup, except for items sold at Ikea food courts. The Lakeland, Florida, and Alamo Ranch, Texas, locations will allow customers to pick up most Ikea orders for free, no matter whether a purchase happened on Ikea’s website or at an Ikea-Best Buy shop.

“For the first time in the U.S., Ikea products will be available through another retailer,” Ikea U.S. CEO and chief sustainability officer Javier Quiñones said, adding that Ikea will evaluate the partnership to “see what the second step looks like.”

Sunoco Completes $9.1B Parkland Acquisition

Fuel distributor Sunoco has completed its acquisition of fuel distributor Parkland. The deal, estimated at $9.1 billion, adds more than 3,600 gas stations and convenience stores, including 699 U.S. locations, to Sunoco’s network, Mass Market Retailers reported. The Sunoco network comprises about 7,400 Sunoco- and partner-branded gas stations and convenience stores, plus independent dealers and commercial customers. The Sunoco-Parkland combo boasts an enterprise value of about $24 billion and annual revenue of about $41 billion.

Savills has launched a retail advisory services group in the U.S. under three former CBRE professionals. Todd Siegel, who will lead the group as president of U.S. retail, has directed retail strategy and leasing for various high-profile projects, including flagship Eataly and Starbucks locations, Chicago’s Willis Tower and New York City’s 1221 Avenue of the Americas. The team’s two other members are executive managing director Phil Golding and corporate managing director Kimberly Wiskup.

Commercial real estate valuation and assessment firm BBG Real Estate Services has purchased from Kova the commercial division of Fort Myers, Florida, real estate appraisal firm Carlson Norris & Associates. BBG’s specialties include retail real estate, and the firm said the acquisition fills a gap in Southwest Florida. Michael Jonas will transition from Carlson Norris managing director to managing director of BBG’s Fort Myers office.