America?s 10 Fastest-Growing Retailers
After the recession, retailers are growing once again and, increasingly, moving online. In the first quarter of 2014, retail sales were 2.4% higher than the same time the year before, largely helped by a 15% jump in e-commerce sales. Online retail is increasingly accounting for more of America?s shopping. Yet not all retailers have adapted to a market where many Americans have less disposable income and are increasingly choosing to shop online. Other companies, in turn, have become enormously successful by embracing these changes… Read more »
Conduit Lenders Threaten Life Companies’ Love for CRE
Life insurance companies love commercial real estate?but competition from conduit lenders could cut into their lending volume. Some experts, like Fitch Ratings, are confident that life insurance companies can continue to grow their commercial real estate business. ?Fitch expects new mortgages originated by life insurers in 2014 to exceed 2013 levels,? according to U.S. Life Insurers Mortgage Update, a recent report from Fitch… Read more »
Dollar General Pressures Family Dollar on Buyout
Following Family Dollar Stores? turndown of its previous bid of $78.50 per share, Dollar General Corp. on Tuesday came back with an all-cash offer of $80 per share, or about $9.8 billion including the assumption of debt, and threatened to go hostile if the board rejected the new bid. The Goodlettsville, TN-based retailer, already the largest in the dollar-store segment, has also more than doubled the number of stores that it would be willing to divest to satisfy antitrust concerns… Read more »
List tabs Gilbert as No. 1; Chandler, Mesa in top 10 for working parents
A list compiled by a financial website and a business publication has listed three East Valley cities as among the nation?s best places for working families… Read more »
Mesa Envisions Bigger Jobs Hub at Falcon Field
Amid acres of orange groves and beneath an increasingly crowded sky, the area surrounding Falcon Field has steadily grown into one of the area?s primary employment centers, with nearly 19K jobs and major manufacturers like Boeing and MD Helicopters. Mesa officials now hope to awaken a greater potential within the 35-square-mile chunk of north Mesa with a new strategic plan focusing on business attraction, retention and marketing… Read more »