DL3 looks to cash in on Discover call center in Chatham

DL3 Realty is looking to disconnect from the Discover Customer Care Center in Chicago’s Chatham neighborhood.

Chicago-based developer hired JLL to cash in on the property at 8560 South Cottage Grove Avenue, which it converted from a shuttered Target store into the call center, Crain’s reported.

Alex Sharrin with JLL is marketing the Discover property for DL3.

The 127,000-square-foot building that Discover signed a 10-year lease last year doesn’t have an asking price, but a person familiar with the deal told the outlet that bids could go as high as $20 million.

At that price, the Cottage Grove deal would be similar to the one DL3 struck in Morgan Park. There, the firm bought another shuttered Target store, renovated the space and leased it to Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Illinois, which currently uses it as a community center. Last year DL3 sold the property to Brooklyn-based Beitel Group for more than $20 million.

DL3 Managing Partner Leon Walker said that the deals reflect his belief that even though developers have often avoided the South Side neighborhoods, there is still money to be made in these underserved communities.

“We’ve got to show there are willing buyers and sellers that are active in the market,” Walker told the outlet. “As the next wave of new Black and Brown developers are entering [the development sector], it’s going to be easier for them to have investors and others willing to take risks with them if those investors can see liquidity in the market.”

DL3 spent $250,000 on the former Chatham Target in 2019. While it’s not known how much DL3 spent on leasing commissions and building the space, but the JLL marketing says DL3 and Discover spent more than $25 million developing the property, including a 25,000-square-foot multi-purpose community space.

Read more

Chicago

Mixed-income housing pitched for site near Chicago’s Englewood Square

— Victoria Pruitt