Chicago’s GW Properties Sells Waukegan Plaza

Chicago’s GW Properties has moved on from Waukegan Plaza, selling the 211,000-square-foot shopping center to a West Coast investor for $16.8 million this month.

A Gardena, California-based LLC, SOAP Properties, picked up the property on North Lewis Avenue in suburban Waukegan in a trade recorded March 9 in Lake County public records.

GW, the Retail and mixed-use real estate investment and development firm, has retained partial ownership of the shopping center since at least 2017, according to public records that list the property’s owner and seller as a joint venture of GW and Vero Beach, Florida-based investor Patti Penn.

GW principals Mitch Goltz and Shai Wolkowicki did not respond to requests for comment.

Built in the 1950s, the shopping center is anchored by national clothing chains Ross and Burlington. It was 88 percent leased when it hit the market, according to a listing from Mid-America Real Estate.

Mid-America’s Joe Girardi and Emily Gadomski represented the seller.

GW recently cashed in on a medical office building the firm built in Chicago’s busy Six Corners intersection, selling the two-story property to another local real estate player for more than $16 million late last year. The firm also recently won rezoning approval to build a shopping center in Glenview.

Retail rents in suburban Chicago have been increasing over the past few years, which a September report from Cushman & Wakefield attributed to limited construction and tight supply. Project completions decreased each year during that time frame, increasing the average asking rent on triple-net retail leases to $17.75 in the first half of 2022 from about $16 in 2019.

The report also noted that Chicago-area retail investment sales picked up in 2021 and in the first half of 2022, coming back after a pandemic-induced slowdown.