DRA Offloads Another Suburban Retail Asset

DRA Advisors landed a familiar buyer for a southwest suburban shopping center, as part of its strategy to offload a $2.3 billion portfolio it acquired in 2016.

Louisiana-based investment firm PMAT purchased the 641,700-square-foot Orland Park Place, at 15207 South La Grange Road, CoStar reported. The sale price wasn’t disclosed.

The property, across from the shuttered Orland Square Mall, is 87 percent leased, according to PMAT president Kevin Kush. One of the vacant storefronts was triggered by the bankruptcy of Bed Bath & Beyond, which PMAT is working to fill.

“There is opportunity to reinvest in the center and to upgrade the tenant mix with exciting new concepts that will better serve the market’s wants and needs,” Kush told the outlet.

The acquisition coincides with a national slowdown in commercial property sales, attributed to rising interest rates and tough lending standards. Chicago-area retail property investments totaled $2.4 billion in 2023, down from $4.7 billion the previous year, the outlet reported.

Dwindling demand for retail assets hasn’t stopped DRA from unloading a slew of Chicago-area properties, though. In another deal with PMAT, the firm sold a shopping center in the northwest suburb of Crystal Lake for $32 million in November.

That same month, DRA traded the 326,000-square-foot Four Flaggs shopping center in Niles for $24 million, and it sold the Grand Hunt Shopping Center in Gurnee for just shy of $17 million.

The firm has also sold suburban assets in Skokie, Schaumburg and Vernon Hills for almost $110 million combined.

The tenant roster at Orland Park Place, meanwhile, includes Dick’s Sporting Goods, Nordstrom Rack, Hobby Lobby, Marshalls, Ashley Furniture and Barnes & Noble. Furniture company Steinhafels is lined up to fill the former Bed Bath & Beyond space, and PMAT is seeking tenants to occupy a 33,000-square-foot former Buy Buy Baby store.

—Quinn Donoghue