CHICAGO—The Great Recession aborted all kinds of development plans for properties in the metropolitan area, and many are only now getting restarted. For example, the Regency Centers Corp., an owner, operator and developer of grocery-anchored community shopping centers, just closed on the purchase of an approximately 20-acre parcel in suburban Glenview once occupied by Avon Products Inc., and now plans a 102,876-square-foot center on land Avon had long wanted to unload.
“We first marketed this parcel in 2007 and there was tremendous initial interest,” says Jack H. Rosenberg, a principal of Colliers International | Chicago's Industrial Advisory Group. “Then the world changed,” he adds, and the initial vision, which called for residential units to occupy about 90% of the property, evaporated.
But when Colliers and Avon recently went back for another attempt, the market was not as friendly to residential development. Instead, Rosenberg says, “we probably had about ten offers, and of those, seven wanted to put in a Mariano's [Fresh Market],” including Regency. “Right in that immediate area there is a need for a market; so this is a natural fit for the site.”
Regency officials say they will anchor their new $29.6 million center, called Glen Gate, with a 75,564-square-foot Mariano's, which they expect will open in fall 2014. The project, which sits at the intersection of Golf Rd. and Waukegan Rd., will also have one outlot with an additional 24,000-square-feet for retail and restaurants.
And residential units will still play an important role in redeveloping the old Avon site. Regency has also just sold 7.6 acres of the site to Atlantic Realty Partners, Northfield, IL-based Focus Development and The Carlyle Group. The joint venture plans a $60 million, 238-unit high-end apartment complex for its portion of the site, with occupancy expected by the spring of 2015.
Along with Rosenberg, Colliers' Frederick L. Regnery, senior vice president and Ned G. Frank, associate, represented New York-based Avon in the sale. Rosenberg and Regnery also represented Focus, along with Greg Pacelli and Mark Dolemba, also of Colliers.
“Residential is now coming back,” says Rosenberg, so it probably would have comprised a bigger portion of any development “if we had waited a year or two.” Avon, however, was ready to move on.
In any case, “retail works perfectly because it's such an affluent area,” and will generate both sales and real estate taxes for the Village of Glenview, which created a tax increment financing district that will contribute $3.5 million to the redevelopment. “The village was essential in helping figure out a plan that would work.”
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Brian J. Rogal
Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.
