MetLife Tests Retail Market with Suburban Chicago Listing

John McCallion is ready to take MetLife out of one of suburban Chicago’s most high-profile retail corridors, even if it means selling property while a main tenant is having financial trouble.

A couple years after McCallion-led MetLife Investment Management bought a fully leased Oak Brook shopping center for $41 million, the institutional landlord is testing the market as suburban retail makes a comeback.

MetLife listed The Overlook at Oak Brook, a 54,000-square-foot property at 1715-1775 West 22nd Street, according to marketing materials. The firm tapped a JLL team to seek buyers for the property, even as a tenant leasing about 20 percent of the floor area, Guidepost Montessori, is making its way through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The property consists of seven free-standing buildings, with its other tenants including Smashburger, Verizon, Panera, Bibibop Asian Grill and Blackwood BBQ.

It’s unclear how much the property could fetch, though some Chicago CRE experts are concerned it will be less than MetLife paid due to Guidepost’s problems, according to people familiar with the property. But MetLife persisting with its listing shows it believes the market will price through the potentially temporary blip for the property’s Montessori space. The landlord paid cash for the property and has no mortgage debt to clear, meaning it isn’t on the clock to sell ahead of a loan maturity, according to property records.

An insurance giant’s investment arm testing the waters for retail, as other big Chicagoland shopping center properties are vying for deals, shows there’s competition in the sector. The sale effort in Oak Brook comes as real estate players are revving up interest in Chicago-area retail.

Earlier this year, a joint venture between DLC Management, Crow Capital Holdings and Temerity Strategic Partners paid nearly $62 million for the 314,800-square-foot Danada Square West property in Wheaton, near Oak Brook, from asset management firm PGIM. Plus, a team of Chicago developers late this summer put the 391,000-square-foot NewCity shopping center in the coveted Lincoln Park neighborhood up for sale.

The listings follow DRA Advisors’ nearly completing its selloff of a massive portfolio of retail assets in the Midwest, concentrated in the Chicago area, which it acquired in a $2.3 billion buyout of an Inland Real Estate entity.

MetLife and JLL didn’t return requests for comment.

MetLife acquired the Overlook property in 2023 from GW Properties, the previous firm of developer Mitch Goltz that has since wound down as he started anew by founding GTZ Properties last year. Goltz’s old firm paid nearly $15 million to buy the property in 2018, when it held a 110,000-square-foot Macy’s Furniture Gallery store before it moved to another nearby location.

It was then redeveloped through the pandemic into an anchorless shopping center, although the JLL team is now playing up its proximity to the adjacent, separately owned Costco, calling it a “shadow anchor.” Furthermore, Overlook at Oak Brook is kitty-corner from Oakbrook Center, the second-largest shopping mall in Illinois.

GW dubbed the project a “Covid special” for weathering delays, inflation and rising rates, as the firm took on a $29 million loan for the redevelopment, property records show. GW sold the property to MetLife fully leased. It’s 94 percent occupied today, according to JLL.

JLL’s Alex Sharrin, Moshin Mirza, Danny Kaufman, Michael Nieder, Brian Page and Danny Finkle are marketing the property on behalf of MetLife.