Jeremy Sclar scores $46M loan for Wilmette retail revival

Jeremy Sclar’s WS Development is putting at least another $46 million into its newly purchased retail assets on suburban Chicago’s North Shore.

The Massachusetts-based firm landed a construction loan against Plaza Del Lago, the 100,000-square-foot property on the shore of Lake Michigan that claims to be the nation’s second-oldest outdoor shopping center. Old Second National Bank provided the financing.

The planned renovations of the property, which WS Development declined to speak in detail about, mark another substantial investment into Wilmette’s retail scene after the firm bought Plaza Del Lago this year for nearly $59 million. This was mere weeks after dropping $110 million to buy the larger, 343,000-square-foot Eden’s Plaza shopping center in the same North Shore suburb.

Eden’s Plaza holds a former Carson’s that closed in 2018, leaving a 152,000-square-foot space vacant until online retailer Wayfair leased it this year to establish a brick-and-mortar presence.

Investments by Sclar’s firm have “provided confidence and momentum in the North Shore,” Wilmette Village Manager Michael Braiman said. “There is no space at Plaza Del Lago that is anywhere as big as the Carsons site, only small vacancies. It’s just in need of love and care, in terms of rehabilitating the facades, the architecture, the infrastructure, to restore it to its old glory.”

Sales tax revenues in the village are outperforming last year’s spending and have grown each of the last several years, intriguing both retail tenants and real estate investors, he said.

“We’re seeing folks spending money in town,” Braiman said. “There is a lot of interest from the development community in Wilmette, whether it’s in our shopping centers or downtown along Green Bay Road for restaurants and small independent retail.”

The village recently approved a 100-unit multifamily development by Optima at Green Bay and Central Avenue, about a mile from Plaza Del Lago, which is set to be completed in 2023. Braiman plans to continue pushing for some more housing density in select locations as the village wants to offer more options for empty-nesters and other single-family homeowners to downsize into an apartment in the suburb instead of moving to Chicago.

The village has only had high-level discussions with WS Development about its plans to reposition Plaza Del Lago with the $46 million loan. It has yet to issue any formal permits or approval for the project, but is working with the firm to do so by late this fall, Braiman said.

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