Farpoint, MCZ Land TJ Maxx as Tenant in Clyburn Corridor

A Clybourn Corridor retail building that traded at a fire-sale price is starting to fill up, with Farpoint Development and MCZ Development landing a major national tenant.

T.J. Maxx signed a lease for 26,000 square feet of street-level space at 939 West North Avenue, according to a press release, giving the off-price retailer street-level space at the southeast corner of North Avenue and Sheffield Avenue. The store is slated to open this fall under a 10-year lease, the release shows.

The deal marks a milestone for Chicago-based Farpoint and MCZ, which bought the roughly 200,000-square-foot property at auction in February 2024 for about $20 million from Iowa-based Principal Financial Group. The price equated to $100 per square foot — less than a quarter of what it fetched in 2004, when it sold for $89 million. At the time of the purchase, its nearly 95,400 square feet of retail space was just 15 percent leased, while the roughly 104,000 square feet of upper-floor medical office and fitness component was 88 percent occupied, according to CBRE data previously reported by The Real Deal.

The building, built in 2002, currently houses tenants including Fitness Formula Clubs, Iteld Plastic Surgery and Urban Oasis Massage. MCZ has been investing in upgrades, including a refreshed facade and modernized amenities, as part of a repositioning aimed at drawing higher traffic retail to complement the existing health and wellness uses, according to the release.

Mid-America Real Estate brokers Paul Bryant and Jaime Bertsche represented Farpoint in the lease, while Metro Commercial Real Estate’s Gary Greenfield and Steven Baer represented T.J. Maxx.

Farpoint principal Alex Katz said in the statement that landing the discount retailer confirmed the firm’s confidence in the building’s location.

T.J. Maxx operates about two dozen locations across the Chicago area, including downtown and nearby Lakeview, according to the retailer’s website.

The lease follows a recent pattern for Farpoint, which has been scooping up high-profile retail properties at distressed prices and backfilling them with brand-name tenants. The firm recently announced deals to bring a JPMorgan Chase flagship and luxury chocolatier Hotel Chocolat to the building at 830 North Michigan Avenue, another once-troubled retail property it acquired at a steep discount.