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Washington Prime Group, the Columbus, Ohio-based owner of Polaris Fashion Place and dozens of other shopping centers, has emerged from bankruptcy with new leadership, the Columbus Dispatch reported. Lou Conforti has stepped down as the company's chief executive officer after five years in the position. Mark Yale, the company's chief financial officer and executive vice president, and Josh Lindimore, the company's head of leasing and also an executive vice president, will serve as interim co-CEOs, according to a statement issued by SVPGlobal, Washington Prime's new majority owner. “SVPGlobal recognizes the value of our brand, the potential of our assets, and, as importantly, our employees," Conforti said in the statement. Washington Prime filed for bankruptcy protection in June, after struggling for more than a year with a pandemic that crushed mall revenue and traffic. In its bankruptcy filing in Texas, Washington Prime listed assets of $4.03 billion and debts of $3.47 billion. Washington Prime followed other shopping center owners into chapter 11 during the pandemic, including CBL Properties and PREIT, which together own 130 shopping centers.

New orders for U.S.-made goods unexpectedly rose in September, though manufacturing remains constrained by input shortages, Reuters reported. The Commerce Department said on Wednesday that factory orders increased 0.2% in September. Data for August was revised down to show orders rising 1.0% instead of 1.2% as previously reported. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast factory orders unchanged. Orders gained 17.6% on a year-on-year basis. Manufacturing, which accounts for 12% of the economy, is being driven by still-strong demand for goods despite spending shifting back to services. Businesses are rebuilding depleted inventories, but shortages of labor and raw materials stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic remain challenges. The widespread shortages restrained economic growth to its slowest pace in more than a year in the third quarter. An Institute for Supply Management survey on Monday showed that manufacturing activity slowed in October, with all industries reporting record-long lead times for raw materials.

U.S. manufacturing activity slowed in October, with all industries reporting record-long lead times for raw materials, indicating that stretched supply chains continued to constrain economic activity early in the fourth quarter, Bloomberg News reported. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) survey on Monday also hinted at some moderation in demand amid surging prices, with a measure of new orders dropping to a 16-month low. Still, demand remains strong as retail inventories continue to be depressed, which should keep manufacturing humming. According to the ISM, "companies and suppliers continue to deal with an unprecedented number of hurdles to meet increasing demand." The government reported last week that the economy grew at its slowest pace in more than a year in the third quarter because of widespread shortages tied to the COVID-19 pandemic. "Stress in U.S. supply chains isn't abating, lending downside risk to our forecast for GDP growth in the near term and a clear upside risk to the forecast for inflation," said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody's Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania. The ISM's index of national factory activity slipped to a reading of 60.8 last month from 61.1 in September. The ISM reported 26 commodities were in short supply in October, some for as long as 13 straight months. That compared to 24 in September.

A New York-based real estate lending company says it plans to foreclose on the Lloyd Center mall and redevelop the Northeast Portland shopping center, the Oregonian reported. KKR Real Estate Finance Trust said that it plans to take ownership of the 1.2 million square foot mall before the end of the year. The company says payments on its $110 million debt has been overdue since October 2020. KKR loaned $177 million toward a renovation of the Lloyd Center in 2015. Lloyd Center opened in 1960 as a 100-store, open-air mall, said at the time to be the largest in the world. It was covered in the 1980s with a glass ceiling, then extensively renovated in the 1990s into a more traditional enclosed shopping mall with a central food court. The mall launched another ambitious renovation in 2014, spending tens of millions to refresh the mall’s interior. The mall has nonetheless struggled to turn things around. Major tenants left — including Nordstrom in 2015, Sears and Marshalls in 2018 and Macy’s earlier this year — and shopping traffic continued to decline. Plans to pivot to an entertainment district, complete with a bowling alley and concert venue, never materialized.

Jessica Simpson’s company is set to buy back the singer-turned-fashion entrepreneur’s name from bankrupt Sequential Brands Group Inc. after no other qualified bids emerged, Bloomberg News reported. A court-supervised auction for the branding rights was canceled, according to court documents, leaving Simpson’s firm, With You Inc., as the sole bidder at $65 million. Simpson previously agreed to be the so-called stalking horse that sets the minimum price in the auction, and under bankruptcy rules, she’s required to complete the purchase if no better offer comes in. The auction, which had been delayed by a day, was canceled on Thursday. Sequential’s other major brands will be sold for more than $330 million worth of cash and new debt, the company said in court papers. Gainline Galaxy Holdings agreed to buy Sequential’s Active Division and Centric Brands will acquire Joe’s Jeans. The company is scheduled to ask a judge in Wilmington, Delaware to approve all of the sales on Nov. 4.

Supermarket chains are revamping their operations to navigate persistent product shortages, expanding storage space and curbing discounts to make sure they don’t run out, the Wall Street Journal reported. Companies are planning for shortages of popular brands of food and staples to continue for months and managers are trying to keep up as different products run short from week to week, industry executives said. While food supplies overall remain plentiful, Nutella spread, Prego pasta sauces and Pringles chips are among many items that have been tough to secure in recent weeks, some supermarket companies said. Lunchables snacks and Capri Sun drinks have been hit-or-miss for months. “The fact is, it’s like whack-a-mole,” Vivek Sankaran, chief executive of Albertsons Cos., said on a conference call recently. “On any given day, something is out of stock in the store.” Ferrero U.S.A. Inc., the maker of Nutella, and Pringles producer Kellogg Co. said they have seen heightened demand for their products. Campbell Soup Co. said it is increasing production and looking to hire to meet demand for Prego sauces. Kraft Heinz Co. said that orders for Lunchables and Capri Sun are exceeding expectations and that it is accelerating investments to increase production. Some packaged-food makers, struggling with stretched staffing and hard-to-find raw materials, are limiting shipments of products, companies said. In response, grocery buyers, who are in charge of planning and coordinating orders, are spending more time tracking down vendors, managing trucks that arrive late and searching for substitutes for out-of-stock items. Food retailers are buying extra inventory whenever they can, ordering items months earlier than usual and sending their own trucks directly to manufacturing plants to make pickups and speed up delivery times.

The Transportation Department will team up with California to provide billions in loans to strengthen the state’s overwhelmed ports and supply-chain infrastructure, in an effort to prevent a repeat of the bottlenecks that have crippled the flow of goods into and out of the United States, officials announced yesterday, the New York Times reported. Most of the projects will probably take years to fund and complete, a department spokesman said, so the initiative will offer little relief for the supply-chain crisis now gripping the globe. But with potentially more than $5 billion in loan money on offer, officials say the investment is a necessary step to bolster the state’s aging infrastructure. The loans could be used to upgrade ports, expand capacity for freight rail, increase warehouse storage and improve highways to reduce truck travel times. The Transportation Department will provide some of the loan money through its own programs, while also working with the California State Transportation Agency to identify other financing opportunities. Backlogs of ships at ports and shortages of shipping containers, truck drivers and warehouse workers have aggravated the delivery delays and rising prices that began when coronavirus outbreaks shut down factories around the world even as demand for goods spiked. The Biden administration moved this month to nearly double the hours that the Port of Los Angeles is open, shifting to a 24/7 operation.