A 60-year-old strip mall near O’Hare International Airport changed hands for the first time in the property’s history.
Schorsch Forest View LLC sold the Forest View Shopping Center, at 4734 North Cumberland Avenue for an undisclosed price, the Chicago Business Journal reported. The 69,000-square-foot property is 96 percent occupied and anchored by Jewel-Osco.
Michael Horne with Newcastle Properties represented an unknown buyer he described as “a series of closely held tenants in common c/o Newcastle Properties LLC.”
In addition to the 51,000-square-foot Jewel-Osco store, other daily needs tenants include The UPS Store, Weight Watchers, a dollar store, nail salon and dental office.
Vacant anchor retail space in the Chicago area dropped 16 percent to 13.2 million square feet this year from its 2020 peak of 15.7 million. Despite that, the anchor vacancy rate is still 60 percent higher than in 2016 and rents have dropped to an average of $9.53 per square foot, down from the most recent peak of $12 in 2017.
In July, Irvine, Calif.-based Sperry Equities bought The Landings shopping center in the southwestern Chicago suburb of Bolingbrook from a venture of Atlanta-based RCG Ventures. The shopping center at 137 North Weber Road, 91 percent leased at the time of the sale, is anchored by PetSmart, OfficeMax, Planet Fitness and Modern Furniture, with Home Depot and Meijer as shadow anchors.
The suburban retail market has been a struggle for some. In April, Starwood Capital took a steep loss on another Bolingbrook shopping center. A venture of M&J Wilkow and Bixby Bridge Capital bought $30 million of debt tied to the Promenade Bolingbrook shopping center at 631 East Boughton Road and subsequently took ownership of the property.
A Skokie mall that managed to avoid losing major tenants as the retail market struggled also took a hit recently when Bloomingdale’s announced that it was closing its store there.
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Commercial
Chicago
Suburban Chicago shopping center sold to private investor
— Victoria Pruitt