An Arkansas firm paid $20 million for a 90 percent occupied shopping center in suburban Chicago, pointing to a retail rebound as concern about the virus ebbs.
Woodard Properties bought the 50,000-square-foot complex at 840 South Waukegan Road in Lake Forest from Green Courte Partners, according to a statement from Marcus & Millichap, which represented the buyer.
The complex at 840 South Waukegan Road in Lake Forest (Courtesy of Green Courte Partners)
“Limited supply of shopping centers with scale in Lake Forest brought multiple offers from out-of-state investors” including New York, California, and Arkansas, Marcus & Millichap’s Stephen Lieberman said in an interview. Green Courte found Woodward less than two months after the property hit the market in late October, he said.
Green Courte, known for buying manufactured housing developments, developed the property in 2008. Its proximity to the Lake Forest Metra station, improvements such as a below-ground heated parking garage, and low vacancy rates were part of the appeal. Tenants include Lake Forest Family Dental, Jimmy Johns, and Starbucks.
The retail market in the Chicago metropolitan area showed some signs of improvement in the fourth quarter. Vacancy rates from October to December dropped to 11.5 percent from the previous quarter. The rate for far north Chicago suburbs, where Lake Forest is part of, was 9.1 percent, according to CBRE.
Chicago’s largest retail property sale last year was Evergreen Plaza Shopping at 9500 to 9700 South Western Avenue, for which California investment firm LBX Investments paid $67 million. That’s just shy of the $71 million price for a Whole Foods Market sold in May 2020 in Lakeview, the most for a Chicago-area grocery store since the pandemic.