Management Changes
Parham Santana (New York brand strategy/design firm) has hired Jose San Juan as an account director and Elise Thompson as a senior account manager.
Roland DGA Corp. (Irvine, Calif., signage and graphics firm) has named Tom Boivin director of distribution.
Catalina Lighting Inc. (Miami) has promoted Joy Ragsdale to vp, marketing for North America.
Merger/Acquisition
DAVACO Inc. (Dallas provider of retail services and solutions) has acquired National Construction Services LLC (Cleveland).
Relocations
TPG Architecture (The Phillips Group) to 360 Park Ave. S., New York, NY 10010. Phone: 212-768-0800; fax: 212-768-1597.
Stein Trending Branding Design LLC to 801 Washington Ave. N., Unit 120, Minneapolis, MN 55401.
Store Openings/Contracts
Winick Realty Group (New York) announced it has signed leases for three Blockbuster Express locations in New York. The stores — at 368 Greenwich St., 300 W. 20th St. and 1456 1st Ave. — have 1800 square feet and carry only DVDs and games. (The standard Blockbuster store, which typically maintains a stock of bulkier VHS tapes, has about 7000 square feet of space.)
AutoCart LLC (Las Cruces, N.M.) has announced plans to build its first two Drive-thru Supercenters in Albuquerque, N.M., and Tucson, Ariz. The 130,000-square-foot facilities will be capable of delivering more than 25,000 products directly to customers who drive their cars to one of the 60 ordering/pickup stations within the buildings. The Supercenters are scheduled to open in the fourth quarter of 2005.
Business briefs
Palladeo (Glendale, Calif.) is the new name of Brown Bunyan Moon & More, a designer, fabricator and builder of retail environments. The company's new identity was inspired by the influential Italian Renaissance architect, Andrea Palladio.
Awards and Competitions
The Institute of Store Planners (Tarrytown, N.Y.) has announced the winners of the 2003/2004 ISP Student Retail Interior Design Competition. College-level student designers entering the contest were challenged to create a prototype design for a 5120-square-foot “Northwest Fresh” gourmet food and wine store. The winners are: first place, Dale Potts, Ball State University; second place, Jennifer Jarosik, University of Nebraska; third place, Amy Moore, Texas Tech University; and honorable mentions, Kate Allen, California State University, and Tim Huang, California State University.