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Buyer Interest Growing for High Street Retail

CHICAGO—Potential buyers have grown from private investors to an array that also includes a host of institutional and foreign players.

By Brian J. Rogal | brianjrogal | | Updated on April 22, 2016

 

chi-EquinoxLincolnPark (3) The fitness and daycare center was able to attract an overseas buyer.
CHICAGO—As reported in GlobeSt.com, a private European buyer has just purchased $13 million one of the few High Street retail opportunities that recently hit the market. The three-story, 37,095-square-foot facility at Clark and LaSalle Sts., directly across from Lincoln Park, includes an Equinox Fitness Facility and Kids & Company daycare. What sets this transaction apart is that, according to Peter L. Block , executive vice president at Colliers , who represented the seller, Equinox’s lease expires at the end of next year. “That makes this a high-risk deal,” he tells GlobeSt.com, especially since it occupies most of the space. Still, “we had a number of people who stepped up to buy the property,” a sign of just how attractive High Street retail in Chicago has become. “We are definitely seeing a wider array of people trying to get into this space.” The Equinox property does have many strengths, aside from the premier location. “I anticipate that Equinox will renew their lease,” says Block. And unlike many downtown health clubs that cater to business clientele, it has an affluent base of residential customers that use it throughout the day. And perhaps best of all, members have access to essentially unlimited parking just across the street.   Furthermore, Kids & Company is a “very upscale child care,” and with 77 locations across Canada and the US, it is undergoing significant growth. The group also plans to use the Lincoln Park location as a commissary that will serve all of its Chicagoland locations.   But five years ago, if the same property had come up for sale, a far smaller group would have expressed interest, “and you would have had fewer institutional players,” Block says. Today, however, in addition to the private buyers, institutional investors flock to any of these properties, alongside ones from overseas.     Invesco , for example, an Atlanta-based pension fund advisor, bought the Gold Coast Starbucks at 1003 N. Rush St. for $14 million in 2015. “If you have an asset like this, you are definitely going to get a lot of attention.”

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