Five More Hhgregg Stores to Open in South Florida

Indianapolis-based electronics and appliance retailer hhgregg continues its South Florida lease-signing blitz.

Stores in Pinecrest, Fort Lauderdale, Plantation, West Palm Beach and Wellington are the latest sites to surface.

“I think they found a niche that had been dominated by one player and said, ‘Hey, there’s opportunity here,’” said Michael Toroyan, VP of leasing at Retail Property Group in Boca Raton, which recently inked leases with hhgregg for centers in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. “They are looking at a lot of boxes, and are doing it in the right time in the real estate cycle.”

Hhgregg is poised to slip into a former Linens ’n Things at Bal Harbour Square, at 1700 Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale, and the former Albertsons at the Pine Trail Square power center on Military Trail in West Palm Beach.

Both stores should open by midyear.

That is about the same time hhgregg is expected to open in a 32,722-square-foot former Circuit City at the Shoppes of Plantation Acres on Sunrise Boulevard in Plantation, according to Jeff Kalil of the Rotella Group, which brokered that 10-year lease.

Stores at the Shoppes of Wellington Green, at 10560 Forest Hill Blvd. in Wellington, and in a former Ethan Allen, at 11825 S. Dixie Highway in Pinecrest, are also on the way, according to construction lead website LDI-Line.

Toroyan estimated that hhgregg could soak up more than 300,000 square feet of empty big-box space by the time its expansion is done.

The company said it plans to open 43 stores this year, and 35 to 45 more next year in Chicago, Miami and western Pennsylvania.


By Darcie Lunsford
From: http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/blog/2011/01/five-more-hhgregg-stores-to-open.html?ed=2011-01-07&s=article_du&ana=e_du_pub