AmCap Pays $19M for Chicago Area Shopping Center

There’s a shopping spree for shopping centers in the Chicago area.

AmCap, the Connecticut-based private equity real estate firm acquired the 107,000-square-foot Liberty Square, which features a 54,500-square-foot Jewel-Osco grocery store, in the northwest suburb Wauconda for $18.7 million from Broad Reach Retail Partners, according to Lake County records. Broad Reach bought the property for $14.1 million in 2017.

The deal marks AmCap’s fifth retail purchase in the region. It’s also the latest deal in a series of investors betting on grocery-anchored assets.

“Solid economic and demographic trends in the Chicago submarkets are supporting retail sales growth,” AmCap CIO Jake Bisenius said in a statement.

AmCap acquired another Chicago-area shopping center, Jewel-Osco anchored Hoffman Plaza in Hoffman Estates, two months ago. The $30 million sale price was more than double what the seller paid for it 10 years ago. Both properties were purchased through a joint venture with Texas-based commercial real estate investment company Encore Enterprises, according to AmCap.

AmCap also owns the Amazon Fresh-anchored Norridge Commons in Norridge, the Aldi-anchored Mallard Crossing in Elk Grove and the Jewel-Osco anchored NorthPoint Center in Arlington Heights.

The pandemic upped the value of assets referred to as daily needs retail. Investors have dropped more than $250 million into such businesses in the Chicago-area over the past several months. Trades of grocery-anchored assets hit a record high in 2021, according to JLL.

In August, Tampa’s East Coast Acquisitions picked up Thatcher Woods Center in River Grove from Northbrook retail real estate investment firm Pine Tree for $30.5 million, and Allied Development paid PGIM $30.2 million for the Marshfield Plaza shopping strip in the South Side’s Morgan Park neighborhood, demonstrating interest in properties within the city as well as in the suburbs. In June, California’s Realty Income acquired a 66,000-square-foot South Loop property leased by the grocery Mariano’s for $52.4 million.