Viking Pays DRA $15M for Countryside Shopping Center

Viking Partners has made a safe bet by buying a fully-leased Cook County shopping center for $15.3 million.

The Cincinnati-based private equity real estate firm, helmed by Bret Caller, paid around $130 per square foot for the 117,000-square-foot Salem Square at 5555 South Brainard Avenue in Countryside, according to a source familiar with the deal. Viking Partners declined to comment.

Chicago-based Mid-America Real Estate Corporation’s Rick Drogosz and Joe Girardi represented seller IRC Retail Centers, an affiliate of DRA Advisors, in the negotiations.

The shopping center has service, dining and retail tenants including TJ Maxx/Homegoods, Marshalls, ATI Physical Therapy, Famous Footwear, Mangia Mangia, Great Clips, Card Frenzy and Magic Nails, according to Mid-America Real Estate. Oak Brook-based Pine Tree has been managing the site.

New York-based DRA Advisors merged with Oak Brook-based Inland Real Estate Corp, now IRC Retail Centers, in 2016. DRA Advisors’ Janine Roberts declined to comment on the deal.

Retail rents in suburban Chicago have been on the rise the past few years, with the average asking rent on triple-net retail leases reaching $17.75 per square foot in the first half of 2022, compared to about $16 in 2019, according to a September report from Cushman & Wakefield. The number of Chicago-area retail investment sales also increased in 2021 and 2022 after lagging during the pandemic, according to the report.

Other recent Inland deals include buying a medical office building at 3950 North Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago for $16 million from GW Properties. The company also put a 92,000-square-foot shopping center in suburban Evergreen Park up for sale in 2018.

DRA Advisors, which is helmed by David Luski, paid $53 million to acquire a suburban apartment complex from Blackstone late last year. The firm also bought an apartment complex in Bensenville near O’Hare International Airport for $106 million in August.