The Illinois Medical District sold off two large tracts of commercial and retail properties totalling about 26 acres on the city’s Near West Side, netting $40 million in the deals.
The sell-off was part of a long-planned effort to relieve crushing debt obligations for the publicly-administered body, which manages more than 500 acres comprising dozens of hospital and health care tenants, Crain’s reported.
The buyers of the land were not identified, but district CEO Suzet McKinney told Crain’s they included “family foundations,” with a $12 million loan from Signature Bank.
District commissioners sold a 16-acre site last September anchored by a Costco at 14th Street and Ashland Avenue for $25 million. Then, last month, they sold a 9.7-acre site with a Jewel-Osco-anchored shopping center at Roosevelt Road and Ashland for another $15 million.
The district is pooling its resources for a $300 million mixed-use project at Damen and Ogden avenues, which got underway earlier this year. That complex would include a 240-key hotel, about 550,000 square feet of office space and 25,000 square feet of retail. [Crain’s] — Alex Nitkin