AURORA, IL-Kimco Realty Corp. has sold Yorkshire Plaza, a 362,000-square-foot shopping center here, to GK Development Inc. for $20.5 million. This purchase for GK, which has a portfolio of 4.7 million square feet in eight states, was the first for the company since 2006.
The 25-year-old property is at Route 59 and East New York Street across from Fox Valley Mall. Tenants include Best Buy, Value City Furniture, Golfsmith, Pier 1 and the Fox and Hound sports bar.
There is at least one empty box, a former Burlington Coat Factory, with the center having a total occupancy of 70%. Garo Kholamian, president of GK, tells GlobeSt.com that his company is excited to have a value-add property. “We’re looking to re-lease what’s there, possibly by reconfiguring for a larger tenant,” he says.
He says the purchase lull wasn’t for a lack of trying. “Things were so crazy we tried to stretch to the underwriting, but we were getting outbid, people were way overpaying for properties,” Kholamian says. “We held onto capital until 2009, when we thought there would be a world filled with distressed properties…but that didn’t happen. I think now we’re finally looking at transactions increasing, there’s a little better balance between value and prices.”
Leasing activity should also pick up, Kholamian says. Not only are retailers who held off expanding for the past few years ready to grow, there’s not much new development coming in the Chicagoland area. “You’ve got retailers taking up the existing, emptying boxes like Borders,” he says. “Tenants are starting to recognize they’re not going to always get the good rent deals they’re getting today.”
George Good, Richard Frolik and Christian Williams with CBRE represented the seller. Paragon Life Insurance Co., a division of Guggenheim Life and Annuity Co., providing financing for the transaction. Melissa Pielet with HSA Commercial Real Estate arranged the financing for GK.
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