NewCity Shopping Center Could Be for Sale

A decade old retail enclave in Lincoln Park is now on the market.

NewCity, a 391,000-square-foot shopping center, was listed by Bucksbaum Properties and Structured Development.

Newmark is marketing the property at the corner of North Clybourn Avenue and North Halsted Street.

The shopping center is 76 percent leased, and tenants include an AMC movie theater, Dick’s Sporting Goods and a Mariano’s grocery store, Crain’s reported.

Completed in 2015, the $260 million development also includes 199 apartments which were sold in 2019 for $75 million and are not part of the current offering.

NewCity is considered central to the Clybourn Corridor, a retail district that has seen an increase in apartment development. Newmark broker Keely Polczynski told the outlet that the rents have been rising in that area as the multifamily market grows.

In terms of the available retail space, most is in smaller spaces surrounding the anchor tenants. Mariano’s lease is corporately guaranteed by Kroger, something that Polczynski said is a “big vote of confidence to the performance of that location,” and the property carries average lease terms of six years.

Bucksbaum Properties and Structured Development received roughly $170 million in construction loans in 2014 for the build.

The offering comes at a time when retail space in Chicago is filling up fast. Brokerage Marcus & Milichap forecasts Chicago-area retail vacancies will fall to 4.5 percent, the lowest rate since 2006. On top of that, the estimated 500,000 square feet of new retail space expected to come online in the Chicago area will mostly be suburban developments, making Chicago-proper retail vacancies scarcer.

NewCity can expect no shortage of customers to its tenant businesses, as two apartment high rises are planned in the area, including a 500-unit apartment tower at Clybourn Place and a 400-unit tower at 1565 N. Clybourn Avenue. — Eric Weilbacher