Asana Partners is making another big splash in Chicago’s retail game, this time on two high-profile North Side shopping corridors.
The North Carolina-based firm has purchased an assemblage of low-rise buildings on Halsted Street in Lincoln Park and on Damen Avenue in Bucktown, totalling 75,000 square feet across 16 retail spaces, CoStar reported. Terms of the deal have not yet been publicly disclosed.
Mid-America Real Estate brokers Joe Girardi and Rick Drogos represented the seller, Atlanta-based Invesco, which acquired the buildings in two separate transactions. It paid $25.7 million in 2014 for the Lincoln Park properties and about $38 million in February 2020 for the Bucktown assets.
While the transaction comes amid a nationwide slowdown in property sales due to economic concerns and rising interest rates, Asana’s ongoing interest in Chicago hints at a possible recovery for the retail sector, which has been pummeled by a rise of e-commerce in recent years.
Asana’s Chicago portfolio also comprises buildings in the Fulton Market district, where it successfully attracted a flagship Patagonia store last year. The investor, with over $7 billion in assets nationwide, remains active even amid a more challenging real estate climate.
In Dallas, for instance, the firm recently acquired two large showroom campuses in Uptown, equating to more than 300,000 square feet.
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Despite the relatively strong occupancy rate of the Bucktown properties, Damen Avenue was hit hardest by the pandemic among North Side retail corridors, with a vacancy rate surging to nearly 30 percent, the publication reported, citing Stone Real Estate. However, that figure fell to just shy of 20 percent last year.
Notable tenants within Asana’s newest portfolio include Lululemon, Warby Parker, Bluemercury, Lush Cosmetics, Barry’s Boot Camp and Chicago-based restaurant group Lettuce Entertain You. The Lincoln Park properties are almost 96 percent leased, while the Bucktown buildings are about 87 percent leased, the outlet reported.
— Quinn Donoghue