Whole Foods-anchored retail center near Chicago sells for $67.25M

CHICAGO, Oct. 4, 2021 – JLL Capital Markets announced today that it has closed the $67.25 million sale of and arranged $45.39 million in acquisition financing for Evergreen Plaza, a recently redeveloped, 255,249-square-foot neighborhood shopping center anchored by Whole Foods Market in the Chicago-area community of Evergreen Park, Illinois.

JLL advised the seller, a partnership between funds managed by affiliates of Fortress Investment Group LLC (“Fortress”) and Lormax Stern. LBX Investments acquired the asset and engaged JLL to place the 10-year fixed-rate acquisition loan with Angel Oak Commercial Lending, LLC.

Anchored by the only Whole Foods Market within a six-mile radius. Evergreen Plaza has a category-leading anchor tenancy that also includes T.J.Maxx, Burlington, Five Below, Ulta Beauty, DSW and Planet Fitness. The 94-percent-leased center is also home to a variety of regional and national service, fitness and restaurant users such as Starbucks, Skechers, Potbelly, Mod Pizza and Visionworks.

Evergreen Plaza is at 9500 S Western Ave. in Evergreen Park about 15 miles from downtown Chicago. The center is at a high-traffic location visible to more than 48,500 vehicles per day. This area also has high population density with approximately 222,000 residents within a three-mile radius, and Evergreen Plaza serves as the main shopping destination for this population.

The JLL Retail Capital Markets team representing the seller was led by Managing Directors Amy Sands and Clinton Mitchell and Director Michael Nieder.  

“Evergreen Plaza represents the largest single-asset retail sale transaction in Chicago year to date and is indicative of capital trends from new investors seeking scalable, market dominant open-air retail,” Sands said. “This is LBX’s first acquisition in the Midwest, demonstrating the strength and potential they see for the asset and the region.”

“Evergreen Plaza has demonstrated strong tenant and operational resiliency and is poised to provide attractive future stability,” Mitchell added. “Evergreen is positioned to continue attracting category leading national tenancy and outperform its competitive set given the lack of new supply in a high barrier-to-entry submarket.”

The JLL Capital Markets Debt Advisory team representing the buyer was led by Senior Director Christopher Knight and Managing Director Gregg Shapiro.

“LBX has been growing steadily throughout the Southeast in recent years, and we are thrilled to help them acquire another asset as well as establish a presence in the Chicago metro,” Shapiro said.

JLL Capital Markets is a full-service global provider of capital solutions for real estate investors and occupiers. The firm's in-depth local market and global investor knowledge delivers the best-in-class solutions for clients — whether investment sales and advisory, debt advisory, equity advisory or a recapitalization. The firm has more than 3,000 Capital Markets specialists worldwide with offices in nearly 50 countries.

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