Business news in brief

Thursday, July 3, 2014

21c Bentonville's hotel ranking is No. 31

Bentonville's 21c Museum Hotel is ranked No. 31 on Travel + Leisure magazine's World's Best Awards in the U.S. large-city hotel category.

The magazine uses a readers survey to determine top hotels, cities, airlines and cruises, according to its website. The Langham hotel in Chicago ranked No. 1 on the U.S. list of large-city hotels, with the Mandarin Oriental in Las Vegas at No. 2 and the Carlyle, a Rosewood Hotel in New York, as No. 3.

The results are available on the Travel + Leisure website and will be published in the magazine's August issue in mid-July, according to a Wednesday news release.

The $30 million, four-story 21c opened in downtown Bentonville in early 2013. It features 12,000 square feet of art exhibition and event space. It's located on the Bentonville square and is in walking distance of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. It has 104 rooms.

The Four Seasons Hotel in Las Vegas ranked No. 30, just above the 21c Bentonville, and the Windsor Court Hotel in New Orleans ranked just below it at No. 32. The 21c Bentonville was the only Arkansas hotel to place in the category.

Earlier, the 21c Bentonville also placed on Travel + Leisure's 2013 list of best new hotels in the design category.

-- John Magsam

Dimon radiation set; succession a topic

Jamie Dimon, the leader of JPMorgan Chase & Co. for eight years, said Wednesday that he'll start treatment for throat cancer, raising new questions about succession plans at the biggest U.S. bank.

Dimon, the company's chairman and chief executive officer, told employees and shareholders in a memo Wednesday that his condition is curable and that he'll continue running the firm "as normal" during eight weeks of radiation and chemotherapy. The treatment will start soon at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, limiting his travel, Dimon said.

Dimon, 58, has been chief executive of New York-based JPMorgan since the end of 2005, navigating the 2008 financial crisis without a loss and doubling annual profit as the lender's shares climbed about 45 percent. Six months ago, the board credited his ability to resolve government investigations of the bank. The illness will revive questions about how the board would theoretically handle his succession, said Ralph Cole, a portfolio manager at Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. in Portland, Ore.

"Transition has always been a question, and now that will be at the top of investors' minds," Cole said. "They have to be very vocal about who's going to be stepping up during the eight-week period. They've got to be clear with everybody about who that is."

-- Bloomberg News

Kroger to buy online retailer Vitacost

Kroger Co., the largest U.S. supermarket chain, agreed to buy online retailer Vitacost.com Inc. for $280 million to add a new channel for selling nutrition and healthy-living products.

The $8-a-share deal has been approved by both boards and by holders of 26 percent of Vitacost's shares, the companies said Wednesday in a statement. The bid represents a 51 percent premium to Vitacost's closing price on Feb. 19, the day before one of its investors publicly asked the company to seek strategic alternatives, and is 27 percent higher than Tuesday's close.

Kroger, based in Cincinnati, has been selling more organic and natural food under its Simple Truth label. Boca Raton, Fla.-based Vitacost generated $382.7 million in revenue last year selling vitamins, minerals, herbs, health food and nutrition products.

Kroger shares fell 10 cents to close Wednesday at $49.43 in New York. Vitacost.com Inc gained $1.69, or 27 percent, to $8.

-- Bloomberg News

Target asks shoppers to not carry guns

NEW YORK -- Target is asking its customers to not bring firearms into its stores, even where it is allowed by law.

In a statement posted Wednesday on the retailer's corporate blog, interim Chief Executive Officer John Mulligan said that Target wants a "safe and inviting" atmosphere for its shoppers and employees.

"Bringing firearms to Target creates an environment that is at odds with the family-friendly shopping and work experience we strive to create," he said.

In many states, carrying unconcealed guns in public is legal.

Target Corp. made the announcement as it faced pressure about its policy on the "open carry" of firearms in its stores. A group called Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America gathered nearly 400,000 signatures for a petition asking Target to prohibit shoppers from carrying guns into its stores.

-- The Associated Press

Lower Manhattan office leasing surges

Lower Manhattan office leasing surged in the first half, pushing down vacancies as tenants took advantage of some of the lowest rents in the borough of Manhattan, reported Cushman & Wakefield Inc.

Agreements were signed for 3.7 million square feet downtown in the year through June, the New York-based brokerage said Wednesday. The vacancy rate dropped to 10 percent from 12.2 percent at the end of 2013.

Leasing in Lower Manhattan gained momentum as "sticker shock" in the Midtown-south market drove media and technology tenants to seek cheaper alternatives to the vintage buildings in that area, roughly between 30th and Canal streets, according to Donald Noland, regional research director at Cushman.

"We're really seeing some strong growth numbers," Noland said in a telephone interview.

Landlords were offering space in older, less well-appointed office buildings in Midtown south -- which includes such neighborhoods as the Flatiron District, Chelsea and Soho -- at about $63 a square foot, he said. That compares with about $40 a square foot for similar properties in Lower Manhattan. Rents downtown will rise as the vacancy rate falls, Noland said.

Magazine publisher Time Inc. last month decided to relocate its headquarters from Midtown, taking 700,000 square feet at 225 Liberty St. in Brookfield Place. Bank of New York Mellon Corp., the world's biggest custody bank, agreed to rent about 350,000 square feet in the same building in the complex, owned by Brookfield Property Partners LP. Financial terms of the leases weren't disclosed.

-- Bloomberg News

Business on 07/03/2014