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CHICO’S ACQUIRING WHITE HOUSE INC.

Chico’s FAS plans to buy The White House Inc., parent of the White House/Black Market apparel chain, for $90 million — $85.6 million in cash and $4.4 million in stock. The acquisition, which the companies expect to close this month, would give Chico’s 99 White House/Black Market stores in 30 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. (White House has four more stores under different brand names.) Chico’s says it will keep the White House/Black Market brand name and seek to open 25 to 30 new units next year.

SIMON TO BUILD LIFESTYLE CENTERS

Simon Property Group is planning a 1.5 million-square-foot open-air, mixed-use lifestyle center in Jacksonville, Fla. The company will break ground next year on the $158 million St. Johns Town Center and aims for a 2005 opening. Other lifestyle projects in the pipeline are the 1.8 million-square-foot Coconut Pointe, Estero, Fla., and The Shops at Arbor Walk, Austin, Texas, both set for a fall 2006 completion.

BON-TON IN BID FOR ELDER-BEERMAN

The Bon-Ton Stores is offering about $80.5 million, or $7 per share, for Dayton, Ohio-based Elder-Beerman. (In June investment firm Goldner Hawn Johnson & Morrison bid $69 million, or $6 per share, for the 68-store chain.) Bon-Ton, an East Coast department store chain with 72 stores, said the combination “would be in the best interests of both companies’ shareholders, customers and employees.”

CBL BUYING FAISON MALLS

CBL & Associates will buy Faison Enterprises’ four-mall portfolio for $340 million, following Faison’s decision to concentrate on building and selling centers rather than owning them. The centers, one in North Carolina and three in Virginia, will bring CBL’s total number of regional malls to 59. The three Virginia properties are River Ridge Mall, Lynchburg; Southpark Mall, Colonial Heights; and Valley View Mall, Roanoke. The North Carolina center is Cross Creek Mall, Fayetteville. Sales per square foot at the four averages $319, according to CBL. The company expects the acquisition to generate an initial yield of 8.6 percent, based on current income.

DISNEY CHAIN ON BLOCK

The Walt Disney Co. seeks a buyer for its Disney Stores chain, a company executive told SCT, requesting anonymity. The source said Disney had hired investment banks Bear Stearns and Goldman Sachs to sell the chain, which has about 550 stores worldwide, 387 of them in North America. Disney announced in May that it would close stores or sell the chain, following weak sales. As a measure of the decline in entertainment company retail, Disney had more than 700 stores at the beginning of 2001. AOL Time Warner closed a similar concept last year under the Warner Bros. name.