Hines Gets Near $25M Discount for Chicago Shopping Center

Hines Global Income Trust is scooping up Wicker Park Commons shopping center in Chicago from German firm DWS Group for $70 million, a nearly 30 percent haircut from the firm’s $94.75 million acquisition of the shopping center in 2015.

Houston-based Hines said it entered into an agreement with DWS to buy the 218,000-square-foot property at 1279 North Ashland Avenue in May through a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, as first reported by CoStar. The sales price equates to $321 per square foot.

Hines GIT is a real estate investment trust that is a part of juggernaut real estate firm Hines, which claims 26 properties in Chicago alone. Notably, Hines is the developer of the 628,000-square-foot, 60-story Wolf Point East luxury apartment building in River North, where the firm also recently notched a $142 million, refi for the 509-unit property on Chicago’s riverfront.

Hines’ purchase of the Wicker Park Commons is their second-largest acquisition in Chicago in recent months, according to the publication. In late 2025, the firm bought the 541-unit Left Park apartment tower at 300 North Canal Street for $151 million.

For DWS, the sale is a part of a pivot away from office space into multifamily and industrial properties. They’ve sold two Chicago-area apartment buildings at 123 North Desplaines Street and 180 North Ada Street, and shed buildings in San Francisco, South Florida and Washington D.C. since an August 2025 interview on their future strategies with The Real Deal. At the time of the interview, DWS had just listed a 24-story office building in San Francisco for around $95 million after purchasing it for $118.5 million in a similar $20 million price reduction.

Wicker Park Commons is anchored by a Jewel Osco grocery store and also features a Lowe’s, Ulta and 140,000 square feet of office space. The 2015 sale happened as the Lowe’s was under construction at the initiation of a 15-year lease with multiple 5-year extension options, according to the outlet. Lowe’s leases just over 89,000 square-feet of the 218,000 square foot property.

— Hunter Cooke