The Retail Bus Tour, Inc. (www.retailbustour.com), a new marketing and networking event specifically designed for the shopping center industry, has expanded into the Boston market area. This industry event is scheduled for June 26, and registration has already begun with over 45 attendees pre-registered. Three chartered buses, each with two "on-board" moderators, will guide attendees through 35 major shopping centers in the Boston Metropolitan market area, providing information on each property, including rental rates, existing and upcoming vacancies and future redevelopment plans. The Retail Bus Tour provides property owners and their representatives a new platform to showcase their properties to real estate industry professionals as well as retail company representatives. "We are extremely excited to bring The Retail Bus Tour to our market as this venue provides the most effective networking opportunity for our industry to share ideas while increasing our knowledge in the market and showcasing retail properties" said Lawrence Platt, a twenty-five year retail real estate veteran and principal with Platt Realty Group and the regional director for The Retail Bus Tour. SOUTHINGTON, CT Galaxy Development of Auburn has recently completed another new shopping center on Queen St. The project is located at one of the busiest signalized intersections in the Queen St. trade area immediately adjacent to Exit 32 off I-84. The property consists of over 3 acres on the corner of Loper St. and Queen St. Panera Bread opened a new 4,200 s/f end cap store with drive thru in February and other tenants, Webster Bank, Sprint and Urgent Care are also now open and off to terrific starts. The project was engineered and designed by Patrick Doherty of MidPoint Engineering in Auburn, Mass. and constructed by Orlando Annulli & Sons, Inc. of Manchester, Conn. Architectural services were provided by Russell and Dawson, LLC of East Hartford, Conn. Attorney Susan Hays of Updike, Kelly & Spellacy, P.C. of Hartford, Conn. represented Galaxy Development. The new Panera store is operated by Howley Bread and it represents the third store Galaxy has completed for Panera. Harmon Lewis of National Commercial Brokers represented the tenant. There is one small unit of 1,685 s/f left to lease. This new center was the third plaza completed by Galaxy over the last 12 months which together totaled over 130,000 s/f of retail space for tenants such as Verizon, Price Chopper, Family Dollar, Advance Auto, Planet Fitness, Sweet Kiwi Frozen Yogurt, Sprint, Urgent Care and Panera Bread. Other new projects fully permitted and preparing to start construction this year are located in Sutton, Webster and Framingham, Mass. consisting of another 270,000 s/f.