2012 top business stories: Oregon retail scene sees plenty of activity ...

The biggest, most tragic news of 2012 in local retail will likely continue to shake the community for a good portion of the year to come.

A masked gunman, later identified as 22-year-old Jacob Roberts, opened fire Dec. 11 near the food court at Clackamas Town Center, killing two adults and seriously injuring a teenage girl. Terrified shoppers dropped purses, shopping bags and strollers as they made for the doors. Others ducked into stores and sat for hours with employees as police searched for the gunman, who subsequently killed himself in a back hallway.

The violence chilled shoppers young and old who came to realize how safe they'd once felt in malls, especially during the holidays.

Retailers at Westfield Southcenter in Seattle, where a teenager was killed in a gang-related shooting in 2008, said it can take six months to a year to regain some sense of normalcy.

Indeed, people returned to Clackamas, shopping and writing words of support on memorial stars along the mall's railings. On the day after Christmas, usually one of the busiest days of the year, traffic was strong, though many shoppers and store employees commented it didn't seem as busy as some years.

"A lot of people have come out to support local merchants and national ones. That's the right thing to do," said John Jost, owner of Eugene-based Excalibur Cutlery & Gifts, which was hit financially by the mall's two-day closure following the tragedy. "It does take a while for memories to fade."

In other retail news, there was plenty of activity.

Comings

In February, Target Corp. announced plans to open a City Target in downtown Portland's Galleria Building. The 89,000-square-foot location at Southwest 10th Avenue and Alder Street will feature a pharmacy and the usual fashion and home offerings. A few blocks away, across from Pioneer Place mall, will come a long-awaited mega Apple store. Development plans call for a 165-foot-long, glass-enclosed store.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which for years battled Portlanders and politicians to wend its way into the Rose City, found a way to bring its price-slashing smiley face to town: defunct grocery stores. The Arkansas-based chain opened three mini-me versions in shuttered grocery stores in Lake Oswego, Beaverton and Gresham. Wal-Mart also updated and added groceries to its Southeast Portland location and broke ground on a 90,000-square-foot store with groceries at Hayden Meadows in North Portland.

Goings

Last January, in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Tilman Fertitta sealed the deal on his purchase of McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurants Inc. He immediately took the Portland company private and, according to many regular diners, reduced the chain's once-famous selection of local wines.

Lisa Sedlar, who joined New Seasons Market in 2005 and was named chief executive in 2010, announced she would leave the Portland-based grocery chain to launch her own line of healthy convenience stores. The grocer's leadership, which has since named Wendy Collie as CEO, liked Sedlar's idea and took a minority stake in her new venture.

Makeovers

Many of the metro area's malls unveiled updates and expansions this year.

The 13-year-old Woodburn Company Stores completed its final build-out, adding 16 stores as part of a $10 million expansion that added 38,569 square feet. New names included footwear retailers The Puma Store and Crocs, and clothing retailers Maurices and Charlotte Russe. Jantzen Beach also spent the year reworking the once-enclosed mall in North Portland into a 100,000-square-foot, U-shaped design that allows shoppers to access stores from the outside. The $50 million overhaul, which will add about 30 new stores, also included a revamp of the mall's Target, which added groceries.

Westfield Vancouver installed new carpeting, sleek furniture and a couple of new retailers. The update's main attraction is a snazzy Cinetopia 23 theater, which offers massive movie screens, including one 80-footer, as well as food and cocktails delivered to moviegoers' comfy seats.

Metro-area J.C. Penney stores have gotten spiffed up, too, incorporating several flashy stores-within-stores as part of the Texas-based chain's complete overhaul. Along with the new look, the retailer no longer relies on coupons or doorbuster deals to woo customers, relying instead on "every day low prices." Initial marketing confused some shoppers and the jury's still out on whether former Apple executive Ron Johnson's leadership at the venerable chain will be a success.

Fred Meyer, the locally based subsidiary of The Kroger Co., also completed a number of regularly scheduled, though major renovations in the Portland area. The chain's Hollywood West store in Northeast Portland, which will gain a New Seasons as a neighbor just a few blocks away in 2013, unveiled an $18 million update designed by a Eugene firm. Overall, the chain will spend $40 million on renovations at three Oregon stores, including its Tualatin location, next year.

-- Laura Gunderson

Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2012/12/2012_top_business_stories_oreg.html

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