The longtime owner of Deer Park Town Center has sold the shopping center for $125 million, the highest price paid for a retail property in the Chicago area in at least a decade, according to a report.
Newmark, the commercial real estate firm that represented seller PGIM, said in a statement Friday that it arranged the sale of the 352,257-square-foot open-air lifestyle center. PGIM had held the center for decades.
The buyer was a joint venture of Brand Street Properties and AEW Capital Management, L.P., according to Newmark.
Newmark President and Head of Retail Capital Markets Conor Lalor and Senior Managing Directors Kyle Minter and Keely Polczynski represented PGIM in the sale.
The Newmark team put the center on the market about six months before the sale, according to a marketing flier cited by The Real Deal.
The $125 million price tops the $122 million Fairbourne Properties paid Nuveen for Village Crossing in Skokie in September, a deal that had been considered the Chicago area’s largest retail sale since the retail portion of the Sullivan Center in downtown Chicago sold in 2016, The Real Deal reported.
SITE Centers, a publicly traded owner and manager of open-air shopping centers, sold its interest in the joint venture that owned Deer Park Town Center to its existing partner on January 16 for about $20.8 million before closing costs, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
SITE Centers said in a later filing that it recorded a $20 million gain on the sale.
The sale left PGIM as the property’s sole owner ahead of the $125 million deal, according to The Real Deal.
Wells Fargo Bank made a $64 million loan on the property in 2021, according to Lake County records.
Deer Park Town Center, located at 20530 North Rand Road in Deer Park, sits at the intersection of Rand Road and Long Grove Road where traffic counts exceed 50,000 vehicles per day, Newmark said.
The center was built in 2000 and has 1,650 parking spaces. It was 84.6% occupied at the time of the sale, Newmark said.
The center has more than 45 retailers and restaurants, including Anthropologie, Crate & Barrel, Williams-Sonoma, Kendra Scott, Pottery Barn, Sephora, Century Theatres, lululemon, Apple and Warby Parker.
Newmark said the shopping center draws about three million visitors a year.
The center’s ownership completed about 74,000 square feet of leasing over the past several years, securing commitments from retailers including Sweetgreen, Tommy Bahama, Pandora, The Shade Store, Bluemercury, Joybird, American Eagle and Warby Parker, according to Newmark.
Households within a five-mile radius of the center have an average income of about $170,000 and more than 180,000 people live in that area, Newmark said.
“Deer Park Town Center represented a rare opportunity to acquire a dominant open-air lifestyle asset in one of the Midwest’s most desirable retail trade areas,” Lalor said.
“The property’s exceptional demographics, premier merchandising profile and embedded value-creation opportunities generated significant interest from investors seeking high-quality retail real estate,” Lalor said.
It was not immediately known whether the new owners plan any changes to the shopping center.