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One of the things I do to keep up on retail and real estate news is look through building permits filed in Roanoke, Roanoke County, and Salem.

In Roanoke, those permits are found online. Yesterday, I stumbled upon a permit that Walmart has filed seeking the city’s approval to begin $500,000 in renovations to the Valley View store.

Those renovations include cleaning and painting the exterior and interior walls, pharmacy, customer service area, vision center and entry ways, and refurbishing the restrooms and auto center, according to plans submitted to the city. The plans also call for installing new signs and repairing or replacing doors and floor tile.

Further information, such as whether the store will remain open during the work and when the work will start and finish, was not available because Walmart did not immediately return my requests for more information. If I learn more I’ll post an update.

The 207,000 square-foot store was built in 1995.

Plans for Walmart’s remodel comes as the nearby Target store is in the midst of a nearly $1 million renovation. Many readers have said they’ve had trouble finding items in the store and believe the inventory has been scaled back.

Will renovations at Walmart keep you from shopping there while the work is going on? Will the finished improvements make you more likely to shop there?

Update posted May 22

According to this website, BTO frozen yogurt, which already has a location in Radford, is opening in Salem on West Main Street.

That makes at least 13 frozen yogurt shops from Radford to Roanoke and the Smith Mountain Lake area. Here’s my list:

Frogurt in downtown Roanoke
Sweet Frog at Towers Shopping Center
Sweet Frog in Hardy
Sweet Frog at Towne Square Shopping Center (opening soon)
Sweet Frog in Christiansburg
Sweet Pete’s at Ridgewood Farms in Salem
Frosty Parrot in Blacksburg
Yogurt Cafe in Southwest Roanoke County
Naticakes at the Bonsack Kroger shopping center (opening this summer)
Menchie’s at Hunting Hills Plaza
Bloop at Hunting Hills Station in Roanoke
BTO in Radford
BTO in Salem (opening soon)

End update

I mentioned in this blog post last week that a new frozen yogurt store was opening at Hunting Hills Station, a shopping strip just below Chick-fil-A and Starbucks on U.S. 220.

I’m back with more details on the store.

The new frozen yogurt store is a franchise called Bloop, which is based in Lynchburg where two stores have already opened. A third Lynchburg store is opening soon, as are stores in Charlottesville, Winchester and Greensboro, N.C.

The Roanoke franchise owner, Ryan Schwartz, said he wanted to bring the business to Roanoke because he thinks there is room in the market for more frozen yogurt and he believes in the business model.

The business model he speaks of includes Bloop’s Cup-4-Cup program, in which the company donates 5 cents of every sale to Charity: Water, an organization that is raising money to provide drinking water to third world countries.

“It’s yogurt with a difference,” Schwartz said. “This is something I’m passionate about. I’m passionate about making a difference.”

He said he’s not worried about competition from other nearby frozen yogurt stores, including Menchie’s at Hunting Hills Plaza, Yogurt Cafe on Electric Road near Brambleton Avenue, and Sweet Frog at Towers Shopping Center, because he likes the location of the new store and believes in the business model.

Bloop is expected to open the end of June. It will offer 12 flavors of ice cream at a time, 45 toppings, and charge 39 cents per ounce.

Tuesday Morning, a retailer of closeout merchandise with stores in Salem and Christiansburg, is opening a third store at Towers Shopping Center in Roanoke.

The company has leased a 10,000 square-foot space on the lower level of the shopping center between Check Into Cash and the Virginia ABC store.

The new store marks the return of Tuesday Morning to Towers Shopping Center. Several years ago the store was located on the upper level, just around the corner from Awful Arthur’s (now called Growler’s American Grill & Venue).

Also in Sunday’s column, it appears that PetSmart is in the process of opening a second Roanoke store.

A PetSmart spokeswoman said the company is negotiating a lease for a second Roanoke store, but she would not say where the store might open.

Lastly, be on the lookout for changes at Hunting Hills Plaza. Taco Bell/Pizza Hut will close Sunday and the building will be demolished and rebuilt this summer. Meanwhile, a vacant space between Menchie’s frozen yogurt and Kohl’s is being prepared for Rack Room Shoes, which is moving from the end cap.

Naticakes, a cupcake and frozen yogurt shop that donates some of its proceeds to a foundation that helps children, will open at the Bonsack Kroger shopping center late this summer.

Nicole Sloane started the business several years ago after the death of her 23-month-old niece, Natalie Wynn Carter, according to the company’s website. Sloane thought the business would be a good way to generate money for the Natalie Wynn Carter Foundation, established in memory of her niece. Ten percent of the proceeds from sales at Naticakes goes to the foundation, according to the company’s website.

The foundation aims to help children by providing “spaces for children to play through the building or renovation of playgrounds” and working with other organizations with similar goals, according to its mission statement.

I’ve haven’t been able to get in touch with Sloane to learn more details about the plans for the Roanoke store.

It will be located in the last remaining vacant space at the Bonsack Kroger shopping center, adjacent from Sal’s Restaurant, according to Millie Moore, a broker for Retail Real Estate, which handles leasing at the shopping center.

Naticakes has at least two other shops, in Morgantown, W.Va.,  and Lexington, Ky., according to its website.

There also appears to be plans for another frozen yogurt shop in the retail strip just below Starbucks and Chick-fik-A on U.S. 220 in Roanoke. A building permit filed this week in Roanoke says that one of the spaces at 4118 Franklin Road will be renovated for a yogurt shop. I’ve left a message with the proprietor. When I have more details I’ll post an update.

J.C. Penney posted a loss after unveiling its new look and pricing structure. Photo courtesy of J.C. Penney

The recent changes at J.C. Penney, including their new look and the “Fair and Square” pricing structure, had some blog readers wondering whether the changes would drive customers to the department store.

The answer, apparently, is no.

J.C. Penney lost $163 million in the quarter that ended April 28, or 75 cents a share, down from a profit of $64 million in the same quarter last year. (The company said that when taking into account the costs of restructuring the adjusted loss was $55 million, or 25 cents a share.)

“Sales and profitability have been tougher than anticipated during the first 13 weeks,” CEO Ron Johnson said in a news release.

The company reported the loss after it announced in February that it would eliminate its sales and instead offer three prices: best prices, month-long values and everyday.

Johnson, who came to J.C. Penney from Apple, remained confident he could turn the company around.

“While we have work to do to educate the customer on our pricing strategy and to drive more traffic to our stores, we are confident in our vision to become America’s favorite store,” he said.

Meanwhile, J.C. Penney announced it would launch new brands, including a JCP brand for men and women that will be in stores this fall, according to this Associated Press story. The company is also partnering with several designers, including Vivienne Tam and Betsey Johnson.

Do you like J.C. Penney’s new pricing structure, or do you miss the sales? Do you think the pricing structure will catch on with bargain-hungry consumers?

The last I reported on the Hummus House restaurant located in the Crystal Tower Building was that it might, or might not, be closing.

Total Action Against Poverty, which owns the eight-story building at the corner of Second Street and Campbell Avenue, has ordered its tenants to leave the building by May 31 because of a pending sale on the building.

But then they reconsidered and told Hummus House owner Daniel Melki that he could stay because his restaurant was separate from the rest of the building. If an unnamed developer buys the building, they could do their renovations around the restaurant, Melki said he was told.

That’s where we left off.

I talked with Mekli this week and he said he decided to leave the building along with Mr. Bill’s hair salon, the Cutting Edge hair salon, and Katherine’s Studio, also a hair salon.

“I just didn’t think it was a good idea to stick around with all the construction going on,” Melki said.

His last day open in the Crystal Tower building is Friday. You can also grab one last falafel on Saturday at the Local Colors festival in Elmwood Park, where Melki will be vending.

Melki still hopes to reopen at another downtown location but said he hasn’t settled on a new spot just yet.

A national massage chain is trying to attract franchise owners to open at least two spas in Roanoke.

Massage Envy already has about 765  spas in 44 states, including 23 in Virginia. The closest spas to Roanoke are in Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point, N.C.

Massage Envy offers a variety of massages such as Swedish and deep tissue massages starting at $49 for an hour. They also offer facials starting at $59 an hour.

A news release from the company said it is looking for prospective franchisees that have business sales or management experience and a net worth of at least $500,000. The initial investment to open a Massage Envy franchise is from $352,000 to $569,000. That includes the franchise fee.

Massage Envy regional developer Kent Swarts is holding a meeting for prospective owners on Thursday from 12-2 p.m. at Metro! in downtown Roanoke. Register for the event by emailing Swarts at kswarts@massageenvy.com.

3Peaks Endurance Sports, a Salem store selling bicycles and running and swimming gear, will close at the end of the month.

Drew Carroll, who owns the East Main Street store with his father, Bill Carroll, said there weren’t enough sales to sustain the business.

The store opened more than a year and a half ago. Its last day open is May 31.

Bicycles have been marked down 25 percent, and shoes 30 percent. Everything else is 40 percent off.

Courtesy of CUPS-a-Go-Go

Cups Coffee and Tea in Grandin has opened its second location, CUPS a-Go-Go on Brambleton Avenue.

The new location has a drive through (hence the name), kitchen and a coffee roaster, which is roasting beans for both shops.

Owner Michelle Bennett hired Alexis Hinchey to manage the shop and develop its menu. Hinchey is the former owner of Kneadful Things bakery that was on Memorial Avenue.

Bennett is also working with Christopher Spoon, a coffee roaster.

Spoon learned to roast coffee years ago at Mill Mountain Coffee and Tea. He later started his own business, Honest Coffee Roasters, which provided coffee for Cups.

Spoon recently sold the business and started a new one, Cups Coffee, which is roasting coffee beans for Cups’ two locations. You can read more about the local coffee roasting scene in this story I wrote for last Sunday’s newspaper.

Bennett said Cups a-Go-Go’s opening has been well received, partly because of the location at 2825 Brambleton Avenue. The shop was Dave’s Coffee Time until Bennett bought that business earlier this year. Before that, it was home to Mojo Cafe, which closed last year.

A sign hangs on the doors of the closed Burger Bistro in Salem. Photo by Stephanie Ogilvie

Less than a year after it opened in Salem, Burger Bistro has closed.

“We just couldn’t do enough sales to stay open,” owner Randy Childress said.

A sign on the door at the Mill Lane Commons retail center on West Main Street says the burger joint closed Monday.

Childress, who sold the Chick-fil-A at Tanglewood Mall months before opening Burger Bistro, said running an independent business was more difficult than operating a franchise.

He said he doesn’t have any immediate plans to get back into the restaurant business.

In other Salem news, Miranda Beck, reporter for The Roanoke Times’ So Salem publication, reports that the Salem Chick-fil-A will open June 7 at 6:30 a.m.

She also says that the boutique Because Girls Will Be Girls and the salon Pampered and Polished on East Main Street are moving to Apperson Drive. Read more here.