Westwood Financial buys Clybourn Galleria storefronts for $12M

Newport Capital Partners sold the 25K sf property for $500K more than they paid in 2013

The Clybourn Galleria retail strip and Joe Dykstra
The Clybourn Galleria retail strip and Joe Dykstra

Westwood Financial bought the Clybourn Galleria retail strip in the Lincoln Park neighborhood for $12.25 million, making it the Los Angeles-based firm’s third Chicago property and its eighth in Illinois.

Westwood signed a deal last week for the row of brick storefronts, 1835-57 North Clybourn Avenue, according to Cook County property records. Tenants in the 25,300-square-foot space include a Jos. A. Bank branch and a Massage Envy spa.

The property was sold by the Chicago-based Newport Capital Partners, whose principals paid $11.75 million for the space in 2013, RE Journals reported at the time.

Westwood’s portfolio comprises 113 shopping centers spanning 9 million square feet across 18 states, according to its website. The company manages retail properties at 1419 North Kingsbury Street and 1001 West Webster Avenue in Chicago, as well as five others in Illinois.

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A spokesman for Westwood did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

Clybourn Galleria sits across the street from the 22-acre site of General Iron Industries, which went up for sale last month. [https://therealdeal.com/chicago/2018/07/16/general-iron-selling-prime-riverfront-property-along-north-branch/] That property borders the 53-acre site of Sterling Bay’s [https://therealdeal.com/chicago/2018/07/13/sterling-bays-greatest-hits-of-2018/] proposed Lincoln Yards [https://therealdeal.com/chicago/tag/lincoln-yards/] mega-development, which the company padded last month with two additional industrial properties. [https://therealdeal.com/chicago/2018/08/28/sterling-bay-expands-already-big-footprint-in-lincoln-yards/]

A July report from CBRE indicated that the Chicago region’s retail vacancy rate hit an 8-year high this year at 11.6 percent, although just 5.1 percent of retail spaces are empty on the city’s North Side. [https://therealdeal.com/chicago/2018/07/25/chicago-area-retail-vacancy-hits-highest-point-since-2010/]