With multifamily sales stealing the spotlight in the Chicago suburbs, a series of retail deals show investors have confidence beyond the apartment market.
Barings, Core Acquisitions and Core Equity Partners all inked deals to buy suburban shopping centers in recent weeks.
Retail activity was down in the metro area last quarter but showed signs of strength in certain pockets of the suburbs. Retail leasing was down 17 percent year-over-year across the metro, according to Matthews Real Estate Services. But submarkets like North DuPage and Schaumburg outperformed the rest of the metro, boasting 2 percent annual rent growth in the third quarter.
Chicago-based Core Acquisitions bought a Jewel Osco-anchored shopping center at 2900 South Waukegan Road for $44 million, or $102 per square foot, in the northern suburb of Deerfield. The seller was DWS Asset Management. Other tenants at the 430,000 square foot property called the Deerbrook Shopping Center include Marshalls and Noodles and Company.
Out west in Naperville, Charlotte-based Barings bought a 149,200-square-foot Jewel Osco-anchored shopping center for $54 million from Buffalo Grove-based Shorewood Development. Barings took out a $27 million mortgage from Principal Asset Management to fund the deal. The price works out to $181 per square foot.
Shorewood bought that shopping center, at 1201-1316 South Naper Boulevard, in 2021 for $25.5 million and renovated it. It’s unclear how much Shorewood invested in the renovations.
The third deal to round out the trio was in the western suburbs. Arkansas-based Core Equity Partners bought Wind Point Shopping Center in Batavia for $25 million, or $91 per square foot, from retail specialist PMAT Companies.
Mid-America Real Estate brokered all three deals. Rick Drogosz and Patrick Corrigan brokered the sale of the Deerbrook Shopping Center, Ben Wineman and Emily Gadomski brokered the sale of the Wind Point Shopping Center and Rick Drogosz and Eric Geksermann brokered the sale of Market Meadows.
The 274,000 square foot Wind Point center, at 201-491 North Randall Road, last sold for $20.5 million in 2023. Its prior owner was Kimco Realty. Meanwhile, Chicago’s suburban multifamily market is in the national spotlight. Multifamily sales in the suburbs were up 40 percent year-over-year in the third quarter, Chicago-based brokerage Interra Realty found. Some of the outer-ring suburbs in Will and Kendall counties are beginning to see a boost as activity spans farther from the urban core.
Editor’s note: this post was edited to correct the address and retails of the shopping center in Deerfield.