Ashkenazy buys Rogers Park shopping center for $22M

Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. has added a Far North Side shopping center to its portfolio.

Ben Ashkenazy’s New York-based investment firm dropped $21.75 million to buy the 200,000-square-foot grocery-anchored Gateway Centre from Stockbridge in a deal closed late last month, according to Cook County records. The property is located between North Clark Street and North Rogers Avenue in the Rogers Park neighborhood.

Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp., which focuses on retail, hotel and office assets, did not respond to a request for comment. The firm’s portfolio contains more than 100 buildings and is valued at $12 billion. In Chicago, Ashkenazy has owned stakes in premiere downtown retail properties at 25 East Oak Street and 700 North Michigan Avenue, buildings respectively leased by Hermes and Saks Fifth Avenue, among others.

Stockbridge bought the property at 7507 North Clark Street in 2007 for $22.1 million, public records show. The San Francisco-based firm did not return a request for comment.

CBRE’s George Good represented Stockbridge in deal, while Asheknazy used its own staff to negotiate the deal.

The retail center’s tenants include grocer Jewel-Osco as well as Marshalls, Sally Beauty, Esporta Fitness, Citi Trends and Life Storage. The center also boasts proximity to the bus and train station hub at Howard and Paulina streets. The property is more than 93 percent leased.

It’s the latest grocery-anchored retail property to trade hands in the Chicago area in recent months, with the pandemic upping the value of what are referred to as daily needs retail assets for investors.

Alan Krause and Mark Misencik’s Mid-America Management Corporation expanded its Chicago-area portfolio earlier this month with its $23 million acquisition of the Fresh Market-anchored Geneva Commons in the western suburb of Geneva, and an affiliate of Robert Whelan’s development firm PMAT picked up the Aldi-anchored Wind Point Shopping Center for $21 million late last year.