Springbank lands $25M loan, signs DeVry to lease in former Sears store

Springbank Real Estate Group is completing a $25 million loan for its redevelopment of a former North Side Sears store, and signed DeVry to a 17,500-square-foot lease in the project.

The Chicago-based developer is converting the four-story building at 1900 West Lawrence Avenue into 59 apartments over ground-floor commercial space, most of which will be taken by the for-profit university, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Once finalized, the construction loan from CIBC will help fund the $40 million redevelopment of the 105,000-square-foot former department store, which Springbank expects to finish by spring 2020.

Sears closed the store in 2016 and sold it to Springbank a few months later for $9.5 million, according to Cook County property records.

In addition to the DeVry space, the first floor will include another 2,400 square feet of retail space that the developer wants to fill with a coffee shop or restaurant, and 42 enclosed parking spots.

Kevin Boyd of SRS Real Estate Partners represented Springbank in the lease with DeVry, which was represented by Henry Kobrin of Newmark Knight Frank.

Springbank has several Chicago-area projects, including the ongoing massive Arlington Downs development in Arlington Heights.

A joint venture of Tucker Development and Sears real estate offshoot Seritage Growth Properties, meanwhile, is redeveloping two other former stores on the North Side into mixed-use properties with retail and residential space.

As Sears continues to shed stores as part of its worsening financial death spiral, CEO Edward Lampert is making a last ditch effort to save the company from bankruptcy, proposing the company’s creditors restructure more than $1 billion in debt and sell off more real estate. [Chicago Tribune] — John O’Brien