Shopping centers make ideal location for flying taxis vertiports

Can you picture a vertiport on the parking lot of one of your shopping centers bringing in additional revenue and lots of affluent shoppers? No? Why, because you don't know what it is?

Well, a vertiport is the take-off and landing site for electrically powered aircraft taking off and landing vertically. It can be part of a vertihub if there is a large volume of air traffic where several vertiports are located. A vertiport is similar to a heliport or helipad. It is a take-off and landing site for a large number of eVTOLs.

Short for electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, eVTOLs are also referred to as air taxis or flying taxis. Powered by batteries, eVTOLs hover and fly, much like a helicopter, and are typically designed to carry two to six passengers, including a pilot. That is, if a pilot is used as eVTOLs can take off, fly and land by remote control just like a drone.

As we enter the Jetson era, flying taxis powered by electricity will become more common to transport affluent passengers in congested urban and suburban settings. Obviously, air taxis need a location to take off, land and recharge where passengers can board or disembark. That is why real estate sites are needed for vertiports.

Los Angeles-based Commercial Brokers International has lined up eight sites around Los Angeles for vertiports that could lift off in time for the 2028 Olympics. CEO George Pino led the site search for this unusual use.

Its client, United Kingdom-based Skyports Drone Services plans to operate these vertiports much like traditional airports — offering recharging, maintenance and passenger services — while third-party aviation companies oversee the aircraft that resemble large drones due to their size, fuel efficiency and potential to be operated without a pilot. By 2028, Skyports wants its first Los Angeles terminals open for business at rooftops, parking structures and industrial sites across the region.

Shopping centers are best suited to provide these locations for several reasons: 1) Shopping centers are large centrally located commercial venues that attract many people, 2) Shopping centers have large parking fields that can accommodate the landing and charging facilities, 3) Shopping centers can benefit from the upscale consumer traffic these eVTOLs would bring, and 4) Shopping centers are always looking for ancillary income that would be generated from the operators of vertiports.

Read more: Brokerage aims to help get LA's flying taxi industry off the ground (CoStar News)

After exhausting appeals, Transformco retains Mall of America's 100-year Sears lease

After exhausting all appeals, Transformco retains the remaining term of the 100-year Sears lease at Mall of America.

One provision in the Sears lease was very damaging to the landlord. Lease language allowed Sears “after 15 years of operation, to cease to operate and sublease any portion of the property, or assign the entire lease, all without the landlord’s consent.” However, Sears is no longer the tenant or the holder of the lease but Transformco is, a distant Sears successor.

Transformco, officially known as Transform Holdco LLC, is a privately held company established in February of 2019, to acquire assets of Sears Holdings Corporation following its bankruptcy. The Sears store at Mall of America closed permanently in late March 2019.

The store has remained closed for six years, a travesty for a vibrant mall that has been fighting in court to recover the space so it can bring in a productive anchor.

Now, either Transformco assigns the lease to another user or the landlord has to buy the lease from the tenant to revitalize the mall.

Long-term anchor deals made decades ago can have profound consequences even today.

Read more: Supreme Court lets $10-a-year Sears lease stand at Mall of America (CoStar News)

Chipotle Mexican Grill will open first restaurant in Mexico in 2026

America’s favorite Mexican restaurant is about to test its formula with the real Mexican food experts when Chipotle Mexican Grill opens its first restaurant in Mexico 🇲🇽 in early 2026.

The global fast-casual chain has signed a development agreement with Alsea S.A.B. de C.V., a restaurant operator with thousand of restaurants from quick service, coffee shop and full-service brands in many countries in Latin America and Europe. If successful, and I have no doubt it will, Alsea will follow with additional restaurants in other Latin American markets in the region. Armando Torrado, CEO of Alsea plans to expand Chipotle internationally for years to come.

The deal with Alsea is similar to a deal that Chipotle made two years ago with the Alshaya Group, which together with Chipotle, has since opened three locations in Kuwait and two in the UAE.

Chipotle plans to open between 315 and 345 new locations in 2025. The chain will also accelerate growth in Canada and the Middle East in 2025, according to Chipotle CEO Scott Boatwright.

The global chain ultimately plans to have as many as 7,000 restaurants across North America under the Chipotle banner. Known for its burritos and bowls, Chipotle currently has a presence in six international markets: Canada, the U.K., France, Germany, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

Read more: Chipotle to open Mexican locations for the first time in 2026 (Fox Business)

Walmart and Amazon speed up home delivery of prescription drugs

America’s two largest retailers, Walmart and Amazon want to deliver prescriptions to your doorstep in as little as a few hours as competition in the drugstore business is getting more fierce.

CVS Health and Walgreens delivers on the same day nationally and has done so for years, but the fast delivery trend for prescriptions is growing as traditional drugstores close and more people use telemedicine or subscription-based care that encourages regular deliveries. Shopping habits do change over time.

Instacart got into prescription deliveries during the COVID-19 pandemic when it started delivering for Costco Wholesale. The grocery delivery company has since launched same-day delivery services for Wegmans Food Markets and Publix Super Markets.

Amazon expects to offer same-day prescription deliveries to nearly half of its U.S. customers by the end of this year. It’s adding 20 small pharmacies to distribution centers around the country to improve delivery speeds. It also opened 10 prescription processing centers in the past few years. “We’re building a modern pharmacy, what we like to think of as a pharmacy in your pocket,” Hannah McClellan Richards, VP of operations, product and technology at Amazon said last fall.

Walmart expanded same-day deliveries earlier this year to every state except North Dakota, where it has no pharmacies. Walmart customers can get their medicines along with groceries or other merchandise in one same-day delivery. According to Kevin Host, PharmD, pharmacy senior vice president at Walmart, prescription deliveries were the top thing customers requested when surveyed by the company.

It's not your grandmother's drugstore any more when it comes to prescriptions.

Read more: More pharmacies offer to speed prescription deliveries to customers (Associated Press)

NRF releases the 2025 Top 50 Global Retailers list

If you are seeking a global retailer to lease space, take a look at the National Retail Federation’s “2025 Top 50 Global Retailers.”

Walmart is at the top of the list with growing competition from Amazon, Schwarz Group, ALDI, IKEA and Costco Wholesale.

Read more: A look at 2025’s Top 50 Global Retailers (National Retail Federation - NRF)

Mexican drugstore Farmacias de Similares enters competitive U.S. market

If you think the drugstore industry is experiencing difficulties in America with CVS Pharmacy, Walgreens and RITE AID closing hundreds of stores, a new global drugstore chain is in the early stages of entering this very competitive market.

Farmacias de Similares SA, which operates more than 9,700 drugstores in Mexico and about 500 across Chile and Colombia, is planning to open in August 2025 its first U.S. store on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, dubbed Similandia, which means Simi land.

This store won’t be a typical drugstore. It will primarily sell limited-edition merchandise and plush toys. It operates similar gift stores in Mexico, which last fall sold a version of a doll decked out like a Jedi, a collaboration with Walt Disney Co., and sells a popular doll that represents the company’s mustachioed Mexican mascot, Dr. Simi.

The privately held company’s CEO, Victor González Herrera says Farmacias Similares also plans to sell some of its products through an alliance with CVS Health Corp., setting up displays in some of the U.S. chain’s stores in areas with large Mexican populations, such as Houston, Los Angeles and San Antonio.

On March 12, 2025, Farmacias Similares rolled out its first online store to sell to U.S. customers: https://www.drsimi.us

The Dr. Simi U.S. site will soon sell about 200 products, including over-the-counter medications, supplements, vitamins and personal care products—all goods that don’t require U.S. regulatory authorization—along with its popular Dr. Simi toys.

The company opened its first U.S. office, in Austin, on March 24, complete with a meditation room and boardroom, and it’s planning a U.S. distribution center to fulfill domestic orders, which will eventually include everyday items such as perfumes, protein powders and vitamin C serums. It’s planning to offer telemedicine services to U.S. customers in English and Spanish, too.

According to Ramón Soler, director of operations for Dr. Simi U.S., Austin is only an entry point. From there, the plan is to first grow the company in California and Texas, then in other states with large Hispanic populations, such as Arizona, Florida, Illinois and New York.

In the U.S., the company will primarily target the country’s tens of millions of Latino residents, says González Herrera. “It’s a huge and very neglected market. Dr. Simi is becoming a symbol that can attract Latinos to stores,” he said.

Read more: The Mexican Drugstore Mascot Opening Doors to the U.S. (Bloomberg)

The Children's Place is working on reviving brick-and-mortar channel

The Children's Place is on a revival mode. Following a massive store closure program starting during the pandemic in 2020, the chain nearly halved its store count from 924 locations in 2020 to 495 in 2024.

Now, The Children's Place Executive Chairman Turki S. AlRajhi, CEO of the retailer’s majority shareholder, MITHAQ HOLDING COMPANY, is voicing his regrets about how the brick-and-mortar channel of the retail chain has been neglected, and the company has vowed to turn it around.

"I believe that the appearance and poor condition of TCP’s stores detract from the shopping experience of store customers and convey a single, unfortunate reality: our stores have become an orphan channel," he said in an earnings report. To help with the turnaround, Mitqah will provide a $90 million loan to The Children’s Place .

Improved landlord relationships and opening new stores is part of the renewed effort to improve the physical store presence. The Children's Place hired Philip Ende last November to head up real estate and stabilize its fleet of stores. It has also been making timely rent payments to landlords since November to renegotiate soon-to-expire leases.

The chain plans to close unprofitable locations and open a “spree” of new stores, according to a recent shareholder letter. The Children's Place wants to open 15 new Children’s Place and Gymboree stores by January 2026, the end of the current fiscal year. The first side-by-side combo store will open later this year at Woodbury Common Premium Outlets.

Read more: Struggling children's fashion closed stores, sales dropped (The Street)

Walmart plans to add more gas stations next to new and existing big-box stores

Walmart plans to add 40-45 fueling stations next to Walmart stores in 2025, to significantly grow the number of gas stations next to its new and existing stores over the next five years, according to Dave DeSerio, Walmart’s vice president of fuel and convenience.

High volume, low margin fuel has been a hallmark for Costco Wholesale to offer its members, and Walmart appears to be heading in the same direction. Members of its paid subscription service, Walmart+, receive another 10 cents per gallon off their gas at already low priced Walmart stations, as well as ExxonMobil and Murphy USA stations.

While fuel sales are a primary driver of traffic, the majority of gas station profits often come from convenience store items, which typically have higher profit margins. Not so for Walmart. The products in the attached Walmart C-stores are at the same prices that would be found in a Walmart big-box, as well, according to DeSerio.

Walmart currently operates only about 415 fueling stations. Walmart runs 4,616 stores in the United States. This includes various types of stores like Supercenters, Neighborhood Markets, and general merchandise stores.

Read more: Why Walmart plans to aggressively open more gas stations over the next 5 years (Modern Retail)

Vacancy at upscale malls rises in China as consumers hold back on luxury purchases

Chinese visitor spending on luxury goods has not only slowed down in Canada, the U.S. and Europe. It has affected malls in China as well.

High-end malls in Beijing and Shanghai have had to reduce rents and seek retail tenants that cater to middle income shoppers to fill vacancies and boost foot traffic. For example, Parkview Green Beijing, known for its unique architecture and art collection, is diversifying its tenant mix following the departure of prestigious brands like Ermanno Scervino and ROLEX. K11 Shanghai is experiencing less demand by local luxury shoppers.

Mall vacancy rates in Beijing has risen to 10.6% and 9.5% in Shanghai, respectively as of 2024, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

Read more: Luxury malls in Beijing, Shanghai slash rents, change tenant mix as consumer spending dips (South China Morning Post)

Baristas required to adhere to Starbucks' new dress code

A popular destination while attending the spring ICSC convention every May has been the Starbucks located in the Grand Lobby between the North and Central Halls at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

One change you’ll find at the 2025 convention is that most meetings will take place in the North Hall or South Hall because the Central Hall, which has been the dominant hall for years is undergoing renovations. So, the Starbucks location won’t be as centrally located but will likely be as busy as ever.

However insignificant, one thing you might notice while you’re there is a new dress code that Starbucks will initiate starting in mid May. Baristas will be required to wear a solid black top, whether it's a crewneck, collared or button-up shirt. For their bottoms, the company is requiring a shade of black, khaki or blue denim. The company will continue to require the green logo apron over the new standard dress. The green apron has been used by Starbucks since it launched in 1987.

The new dress code is part of a move by Starbucks to improve standards that were relaxed in the past few years. For example, in 2016, Starbucks began to allow baristas to embrace some more diversified personal styles from pink hair to fedoras. No more. It’s back to basics.

Among the reinstated practices Starbucks is bringing back are condiment bars, serving in-store coffee in ceramic mugs and having baristas write on paper cups with Sharpies. What do you think?

Read more: Starbucks' new dress code will require baristas to wear certain colors with green apron (USA Today)

At Home Group Inc. is renegotiating leases with retail landlords to reduce massive debt

At Home Group Inc. is negotiating with retail landlords and other creditors to restructure its massive $2 billion debt.

Private-equity firm Hellman & Friedman acquired the retailer in a 2021 take-private deal that valued the company at $2.8 billion.

If unable to restructure it’s debt, the home furnishings big-box retailer may have to resort to bankruptcy, according to published reports, and that could result in many store closures.

Home furnishings have experienced a slump since 2022 when mortgage rates soared causing home sales to decline.

At Home operates more than 250 stores across 40 states.

Read more: At Home Group, Stung by Trade War, Explores Bankruptcy (The Wall Street Journal)

GoTo Foods is rolling out Cinnabon Swirl, a new QSR concept that combines treats from Cinnabon and Carvel

GoTo Foods is rolling out a new fast food concept called Cinnabon Swirl®.

That’s important because GoTo Foods (formerly known as Focus Brands) is already a very large and proven privately-held company that owns and operates Auntie Anne's, Jamba, Moe's Southwest Grill, Schlotzsky's, Mcallisters Deli, Cinnabon and Carvel in more than 6,600 locations in all 50 states and over 65 countries and territories around the world.

The new QSR concept is a mashup of Cinnabon and Carvel that offers desserts, ice cream and warm cinnamon rolls. The key menu item is a Bonini, a treat that features a swirl of Carvel vanilla soft serve ice cream inside a freshly baked warm cinnamon bun, which will be baked on premises.

The first location will open in Hillsboro, Ore. (Portland) in May 2025. New locations will follow with stores this year in Peoria, Ariz. (Phoenix), Kennesaw, Ga. (Atlanta) and Pasadena, Calif. (Los Angeles).

GoTo Foods already has more than 30 Cinnabon Swirl locations in the pipeline, and Jim Holthouser, CEO of GoTo Foods wants to make this new concept into “the most irresistible dessert destination” in the industry.

While there are already some dual Cinnabon-Carvel restaurants that house both stores under the same roof, just as there are Dunkin'​ and Baskin Robbins combo locations, Cinnabon Swirl is the first to fully blend the two brands in one menu as a combined concept store.

Read more: Here’s How Cinnabon and Carvel Are Combining Warm Cinnamon Rolls and Ice Cream at Their New Restaurant (Food & Wine)

Sam's Club plans to double warehouse club membership within eight to 10 years

Sam's Club has a new goal: Double its membership within eight to 10 years, according to Chris Nicholas, president and CEO of the Walmart-owned warehouse club.

One way it intends to achieve that goal is to open about 15 warehouse clubs per year and remodel all 600 of its existing U.S. locations.

Sam’s Club rivals Costco Wholesale and BJ's Wholesale Club are also expanding. Costco expects to open 28 new clubs during its current fiscal year, including three planned relocations of current clubs. BJ’s had previously announced plans to open 25 to 30 new locations over the next two fiscal years.

Read more: As warehouse clubs boom, Walmart-owned Sam’s Club plans to open 15 stores per year (CNBC)

Ulta Beauty to pause shop-in-shop expansion inside Target stores

Shop-in-shop concepts have been flourishing throughout this decade. Some examples include Toys"R"Us at Macy's, CVS Pharmacy at Target, INDOCHINO shop inside Nordstrom, SEPHORA at Kohl's, Nike House of Hoops within Foot Locker locations and many more. So, what's behind Ulta Beauty's decision to pause opening shop-in-shops inside Target?

Ulta Beauty CEO Kecia Steelman said at the J.P. Morgan 11th Annual Retail Round Up Conference held in New York from April 2-3, 2025, that Ulta and Target had jointly decided they need to improve the “shopper experience” in current Target shops. As a result, Ulta, after starting to open shops inside Target since 2021 and planning to open 800 of those shops has all of a sudden decided to pause the expansion. Ulta already operates more than 600 such shops.

The Ulta-Target model involves a royalty structure. Target buys and sells the Ulta inventory and staffs the shops. Ulta Beauty’s income from Target’s royalties is reported as other revenue.

Read more: Ulta Beauty pauses expansion of Target locations (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Khloé Kardashian's Good American opens fourth brick-and-mortar location

GOOD AMERICAN, the digitally native denim brand founded in 2016 by Khloé Kardashian and Emma Grede, has opened its fourth Good American branded brick-and-mortar location at Lenox Square in Atlanta.

Its first physical store opened in 2023 at Westfield Century City in Los Angeles. Stores at The Forum Shops in Las Vegas and Fashion Island in Newport Beach, Calif. followed.

Good American brands itself as size-inclusive because the store carries women’s sizes from 00 to 32 plus. It started selling denim jeans online but it now also carries other apparel and swimwear lines. Besides selling from its branded boutiques, Good American apparel is also available at Amazon, Anthropologie, Bloomingdale's, Macy's, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, ThredUp and Walmart.

Read more: Kardashian-founded denim brand Good American opens first eastern US store (Austin Business Journal)

Is Rite Aid pursuing another Chapter 11 filing?

Things looked pretty stable for RITE AID after emerging from an October 2023 bankruptcy that lowered its store count from 2,000 to 1,300. Until it didn’t. And Rite Aid is just one of the top three chains in the troubled drugstore industry facing an existential crisis.

Recent reports indicate that Rite Aid is pursuing a sale of some or all of its business as a potential alternative to another chapter 11 filing, after the previous bankruptcy restructuring failed to put the drugstore chain on a sustainable path.

Unfortunately, the entire drugstore industry is ailing and no prescription is available to alleviate symptoms of financial distress.

CVS Pharmacy, Walgreens and many independent drugstores are also closing thousands of stores due to factors like increased competition from Amazon, Walmart and Costco Wholesale, declining profits from lower reimbursement rates for prescription drugs, and a steep sales decline from overpriced front-end merchandise.

Read more: Rite Aid Weighs Repeat Bankruptcy Filing (The Wall Street Journal)

Retailers should try reducing litigation by settling claims early

Retailers face a triple whammy when dealing with insurance-related claims:

1. The number of claims resulting in litigation has risen between 20% and 40% over the past decade.

2. The cost of the losses suffered by claimants are up between 130% and 160%.

3. The average time to resolve a case that goes to litigation has reached 400 days.

This is according to Luke Harrison, managing director and U.S. national practice leader for claims consulting at Marsh & McLennan Companies Services B.V., who spoke at the recent National Retail Federation Retail Law Summit.

Harrison suggested that retailers should try reducing litigation propensity by settling claims early rather than waiting for the matter to be settled in court. This advice should be considered by property managers as well, not only retailers.

Retailers should seek to reduce the number of claims open at any given time to reduce reserves that must be set aside to cover them, Harrison said. They should also develop a strategy to reduce the amount spent defending claims, including avoiding costly litigation when possible.

Read more: Attorney says retailers should settle more claims before they turn into lawsuits (National Retail Federation)

Harry & David is opening brick-and-mortar locations again

Harry and David Stores closed 38 stores during the pandemic, which was all its locations at the time, except for its flagship in Medford, Oregon and took its retail business online. However, that hasn't gone well.

The gourmet food brand opened six pop-ups during the holiday season inside Macy’s stores in New York City and Los Angeles, and is again ramping up its physical retail presence as standalone shops.

The holiday pilot “got the juices flowing” for Harry & David to focus more on brick-and-mortar retail, according to Greg Sarley, Harry & David’s SVP of merchandise revenue.

The result is a new Harry & David brick-and-mortar store, which just opened on Long Island. The new store has a tasting area and event space for demonstrations to enhance the experiential retail experience. That new store and the Macy’s pop-ups were recent “learning opportunities for us to dip our toe back in the water,” Sarley told Modern Retail.

Research is proving Harry & David right about reopening stores. Recent data show that most consumers would rather shop for food products in-store than online, according to Kassi Socha, senior director analyst at Gartner. A 2023 consumer survey by Gartner found that 78% of respondents prefer to buy food and nonalcoholic beverages in person, compared to 5% online using their desktop computers and 12% online using their mobile phones.

Harry & David is owned by 1-800-Flowers.com, which also owns other brands that are planned to be carried at Harry & David stores.

The goal is to further expand retail concepts heading into this year's holiday season, according to Sarley. Long term, he said, “My vision would have us have a brick-and-mortar location where we have a high concentration of (online) customers: the bigger cities on the coasts, as well as in the Midwest.”

Read more: Harry & David is making a return to physical retail after closing nearly all of its stores during Covid (Modern Retail)

Dutch Bros Coffee plans to double number of locations by 2029

Dutch Bros Coffee has raised its target number of locations from 4,000 to 7,000.

The coffee chain currently operates more than 1,000 locations in 18 states but says it plans to reach more than 2,000 units within four years, essentially doubling its current store count before the end of this decade.

Dutch Bros is currently the third-largest coffee chain in the U.S. by unit count. Starbucks has around 18,500 U.S. locations and Dunkin'​ has about 10,000.

Dutch Bros also has a deal to bring Dutch Bros packaged coffee and related products to grocery shelves for the first time, which will increase brand awareness, according to CEO Christine B.

The company had previously announced a plan to open at least 160 new stores in 2025, but will likely increase those plans. It hired former Yum! Brands executive Brian Cahoe, who was responsible for growing KFC in the U.S. He assumed his new responsibilities as chief development officer, responsible for overseeing the Dutch Bros new store growth and development strategy.

Read more: Dutch Bros thinks it can open a lot more shops than previously expected (Restaurant Business)

Store closures are increasing retail space availability by 12.5 million sq. ft. in 2025

Retailer closures have caused retail space availability to increase by approximately 12.5 million sq. ft. since the start of 2025, according to a recent analysis by CoStar Group.

Since the start of 2024, announced closures total more than 10,000 stores, with chains like Big Lots, JOANN Stores and Party City, each closing hundreds of locations.

Planned closures are not limited to the chains going out of business. Macy's Inc. announced in February that 66 stores will permanently close in 2025.

Separately, JCPenney announced it is closing eight stores by mid-2025 as part of ongoing restructuring efforts following its 2020 bankruptcy filing. Those are:

- California: The Shops at Tanforan in San Bruno
- Colorado: The Shops At Northfield in Denver
- Idaho: Pine Ridge Mall in Pocatello
- Kansas: West Ridge Mall in Topeka
- Maryland: Westfield Annapolis Mall in Annapolis
- North Carolina: Asheville Mall in Asheville
- New Hampshire: Fox Run Mall in Newington
- West Virginia: Charleston Town Center in Charleston

Of the 143 U.S. markets within the CoStar national retail index, available retail space increased in 79 over the past year, while 64 saw a decline in retail space availability over the same time frame.

In almost half of major U.S. retail markets, retail space availability increased, but in some markets, such as Tampa, Nashville, and Orlando, availability actually decreased, as retail space availability is still tight across the U.S from a historical perspective.

Read more: Available retail space increases for first time in two years (Chain Store Age)