Realty Income Buys 4 Chicagoland Buildings From CIM Group

A CIM Group fund sold a quartet of Chicago-area retail and industrial properties to San Diego-based Realty Income for more than $67 million.

The West Coast real estate investment trust specializes in free-standing, single-tenant commercial assets and picked up three such properties in Cook County in a deal executed March 22, according to public records. The deal was recorded April 5.

Realty Income paid about $28.3 million for a 94,000-square-foot CarMax store on a 29-acre lot at 18800 Oak Park Avenue in the southwest suburb of Tinley Park, $13.2 million for a 20,000-square-foot West Marine at 1160 North Halsted Street in Chicago and $7 million for a 12,000-square-foot CVS Pharmacy at 3615 North Central Avenue in Chicago, records show.

CIM affiliates paid around $28.9 million for the Tinley Park property in 2017, $12.6 million for the West Marine in 2015 and $7 million for the CVS in 2013, according to Cook County records and past news reports. This indicates those three properties were a near even trade for the firm.

The firm also bought a 105,000-square-foot industrial property at 25056 Will Center Road in University Park that is home to Kloeckner Metals Corporation for about $18.9 million, according to Will County records. A previous sale price of the property could not be found.

CIM did not respond to requests for comment, and Realty Income declined to comment.

The acquisitions add to Realty Income’s national portfolio of more than 12,200 commercial properties, including 528 in Illinois, under long-term, net-lease agreements. The firm’s portfolio is 99-percent occupied, according to its website.

The firm has also invested in the Chicago-area’s grocery store market, investing $52.4 million into a 65,500-square-foot Mariano’s store on the Near South Side in 2022 and paying $36.1 million for the chain’s Orland Park location in 2019. The REIT also paid $116 million for three Mariano’s stores in Harwood Heights, Lake Zurich and Frankfort in early 2017 and acquired the Des Plaines Mariano’s in 2017 for $34.6 million in a separate deal.