Sterling Bay Sheds Another Lincoln Yards-Adjacent Site

Sterling Bay is continuing to unwind its North Side land holdings tied to the ill-fated Lincoln Yards megaproject, selling another development site near the formerly envisioned campus.

An affiliate of Calgary, Alberta-based Jack Carter Automotive Group paid $15.5 million last month for two neighboring parcels at 1642 North Besly Court and 1400 West North Avenue, according to Cook County property records. Crain’s reported the buyer acquired the properties from a Sterling Bay venture that had assembled the sites more than seven years ago as part of its push to control land around Lincoln Yards.

The deal further shrinks Sterling Bay’s presence in the stretch between Lincoln Park and Bucktown, where the Chicago-based developer once pitched a $6 billion, 53-acre mixed-use district spanning roughly 14.5 million square feet. After struggling to secure financing and land anchor tenants, Sterling Bay surrendered much of the Lincoln Yards site to its lender early last year and is now finalizing a deal to sell most of its remaining interest in the project to Novak Construction.

As the megaproject faded, Sterling Bay has been steadily offloading nearby properties it once viewed as strategic. In 2023, the firm sold a 122,000-square-foot industrial building at 1854 North Besly Court, just a few blocks north of the parcels that traded last month.

Public records show Sterling Bay acquired the North Avenue and Besly Court sites in separate deals in 2017 and 2018 for a combined $13.8 million, part of a broader land-grab aimed at giving the firm flexibility to expand or reshape Lincoln Yards if the vision took hold. At the time, Sterling Bay was aggressively buying up industrial and commercial properties throughout the corridor.

One of the parcels, at 1400 West North Avenue, had been teed up for redevelopment. Sterling Bay previously proposed a roughly 100,000-square-foot medical office building at the site, with marketing materials highlighting its visibility along the Kennedy Expressway and proximity to the planned Lincoln Yards campus.

The properties include vacant land, a surface parking lot and an industrial building. The area has become a hub for luxury auto retailers, with dealerships for Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Acura and Lexus clustered nearby. The North Avenue site was formerly home to Nortown Automotive, which has since relocated a few blocks east.

Both Sterling Bay and the Jack Carter Automotive Group did not respond to requests for comment from the publication. The company operates multiple auto dealerships, power sports outlets and a bicycle store across Canada.

— Eric Weilbacher