The sale of a suburban Chicago shopping center to a private investor who plans to close it has left business owners scrambling for space.
An affiliate of Jericho, New York-based Kimco Realty Corporation sold the Elgin’s Town & Country Shopping Center in Elgin to the investor, according to a press release from Chicago’s Prodigy Real Estate, which represented the seller. The statement didn’t disclose the price and a Kimco spokeswoman declined to provide details
The 179,000-square-foot property at 308 South McLean Boulevard includes the Elgin Mall and a grocery store, Elgin Fresh Market, as well as a Family Dollar, Subway, Taco Bell and Aaron’s furniture store. The property was built in 1958, according to a listing on LoopNet.
The property manager notified Elgin Mall vendors who lease space inside the mall that it would close and that they would have to be out by the end of August, the Elgin Courier-News reported. The mall has been in operation for 20 years, according to the newspaper.
The business owners formed a corporation and will be allowed to remain in the mall while they work out a deal, according to the Courier-News.
Mario Farfan, executive director of the NorthWest Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, learned over the weekend that the mall would close, according to a post from the group’s Facebook page. More than 100 vendors had been given notices to move out by the end of August, the group said.
The chamber said the vendors are marking progress toward a contract to extend their leases in the mall for nine months. The group said that they and the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce are working with the vendors to help them find space.
This isn’t the first time a suburban Chicago shopping center owner has been at odds with the local community. New York’s Kohan Retail Investment Group fell behind on its tax bill for six Spring Hill Mall property parcels in June, sparking the ire of local leaders. In Calumet City, the mayor is pushing River Oaks Mall owner Namdar Realty Group to sell the property to make way for his plan to redevelop it into an entertainment center.
A Chicago real estate investment firm acquired a struggling mall in Bolingbrook for $30 million in April, handing Starwood Capital Group a steep loss on the property.
Other recent suburban shopping center deals in the area include a local investment firm’s $16 million profit on a Naperville shopping center, an Arkansas firm that picked up a 50,000-square-foot complex in Lake Forest for $20 million and local investor North American Real Estate’s $30 million purchase of Glen Ellyn’s Market Plaza.
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