Fort Worth-based Pier 1 Imports has signed an agreement with real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield to help manage the retailer’s lease portfolio for its North American locations. The home goods chain spans over 1,000 stores and 10 million square feet of space between the United States and Canada.
“Cushman & Wakefield will work with Pier 1 Imports to assess and develop a strategy for various locations within the company’s vast store portfolio, helping to gain efficiencies and bring costs down,” Todd Kohlbecker, senior managing director at Cushman & Wakefield, said in a statement. “Our goal with Pier 1 Imports is to develop a broader plan for how we approach the portfolio, and then drill down into individual leases from a more strategic standpoint to help them effectively manage their resources.”
Presentation documents from the November 2016 Raymond James Boston Fall Investors Conference for Pier 1 Imports lists real estate as one of the retailer’s “Key Priorities in Fiscal 2017.” The presentation projects that around 100 stores will close between fiscal years 2016-2019, with 15 to 20 net store closures expected in fiscal 2017. In fiscal 2016, Pier 1’s first as an omnichannel retailer, the company had sales of $1.89 billion, $303 million of that from online sales. The online figure was up from $207 million the year before.
“The onset of e-commerce has prompted every retailer in the United States to take a strategic look at how they marry e-commerce with brick-and-mortar stores,” Bret Bunnet, executive managing director of Cushman & Wakefield, said in a statement.
In 2008, Pier 1 Imports sold its Fort Worth headquarters building to Chesapeake Energy and leased back space in the building, but downsized by 10 floors. By 2014 the retailer was ready to expand again and added more than 108,000 square feet to its lease in the building, this time signing with new building ownership, Hines, and earning recognition as D CEO’s Best Office Lease. Pier 1 Imports has been based in Fort Worth since 1966.
