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Apple Computer to open retail stores
Apple Computer is set to roll out a chain of stores to sell its computer equipment. One mall owner has finalized a lease for an Apple store while two others confirmed negotiations with the computer maker. Meanwhile, Apple has stopped selling its computers at Sears department stores. In recent years the computer maker also pulled its wares from Best Buy, Circuit City and several other chains. “They’re opening lots of them around the country now,” said Terry McEwen, president of Memphis, Tenn.-based Poag & McEwen Lifestyle Centers, which will have a 6,200-square-foot Apple store in the Aspen Grove lifestyle center it plans to open in Littleton, Colo., with Cleveland-based Developers Diversified Realty. Executives of one large New York City area mall said they have been negotiating a deal with Apple. Meanwhile, Westcor Properties, told SCT that it has talked with the computer company about opening stores at Scottsdale (Ariz.) Fashion Square and Chandler (Ariz.) Fashion Center. Officials at Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple did not respond to requests for information.

Executive shakeup at Konover
J. Michael Maloney, president of Highland Capital Group, which he founded in 1998, was appointed in March as interim president and CEO of Konover Property Trust. Maloney succeeds C. Cammack Morton, who resigned from the Cary, N.C.-based community center REIT. Konover COO Patrick Miniuti was terminated the same day. The company did not cite a reason for Miniuti’s dismissal. Morton told ICSC’s Value Retail News the day after his departure from Konover that he’d been mulling over leaving the company since last fall. When Konover announced plans to sell its outlet portfolio as a single entity, that sparked Morton’s interest in returning to the outlet sector.

Trans World Entertainment rebrands 730 mall-based stores
In a move meant to boost its brand recognition, Trans World Entertainment, which operates 730 mall-based music stores and more than 1,000 stores overall, is consolidating all of its mall shops under one banner: fye. The name is short for “for your entertainment” and is a slight modification of one of Albany, N.Y.-based Trans World’s existing banners, For Your Entertainment. Trans World, which has stores in 46 states, also operates the Record Town, Camelot, The Wall and Disc Jockey mall-based chains.

New Jersey governor urges new site for Meadowlands Mills
Acting New Jersey Gov. Donald T. DiFrancesco in March urged The Mills Corp. to seek an alternate site for its Meadowlands Mills project. The proposed 2.1 million-square-foot value megamall is slated to occupy a 600-acre site in Northern New Jersey that contains wetlands. Mills Corp., Arlington, Va., has agreed to explore alternate sites, but it has not withdrawn applications for permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “In my view, any development within the Meadowlands region should meet at least three critical criteria. It should have the absolute minimum impact on wetlands, it should improve, not aggravate, traffic congestion in the area, and it should promote growth in our cities and our towns,” DiFrancesco said.