The implicit sale of a valuable, albeit ailing, block of retail space in southern Lincoln Park speaks to the area’s lasting marketability.

Crain’s Chicago Business recently reported that N.Y.-based Acadia Realty Trust is in talks to buy the Lincoln Park Centre retail site, a 62,500-square-foot property located at the corner of North and Clybourn avenues. The property has been in leasing limbo ever since its anchoring tenant, Borders Inc., moved out earlier this year.

The article, published on Nov. 23, reported that Acadia filed a statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission in which it agreed to pay $31.5 million for a property fitting the description of the retail complex.

Occupancy at the site has declined to 44 percent since parting with Borders and Chicago Home Fitness, another former tenant that leased a 10,000-square-foot space in the building.

Current tenants at the site include a Bank of America branch and the Sur La Table store.

Jon Grisham, Acadia’s senior vice president and chief accounting officer, declined to comment on the recent SEC filing or the firm’s prospects for the site, stating in an email that the company would “neither deny nor confirm anything as it relates to the location mentioned in Crain’s.”

According to the article, the owners, a venture comprised of real estate developers Structured Development LLC and a trust of the Barrington-based Schurecht family, face an increased risk of defaulting on the property’s $19.9-million mortgage following the drop in occupancy.

Calls to Structured Development were not returned for this story.

Though no stranger to the dips and dives that have defined all sides of the real estate industry in recent years, the area surrounding the Lincoln Park Centre property is considered a sure bet by most in the business.

“It’s a very strong market right there; you have a lot of power on that corner,” said Sharon Kahan, first vice president of CB Richard Ellis.

The complex shares an intersection with the Lincoln Park Apple Store, which opened last year amid considerable hype, and a newly refurbished CTA Red Line station that city officials have promised would increase pedestrian foot traffic in the area.

On the other hand, the neighborhood has seen some new construction fall to the wayside; case in point is the nearby New City development, a mixed-used complex which was slated to include retail and residential space, a movie theater and a commons plaza at a site just south of the Lincoln Park Centre site. That development, also a Structured Development project, has been in an indefinite holding pattern for years.

Kahan, who specializes in retail brokerage, chalked up New City’s dilemma to bad timing.

“There are still plenty of retailers that want to be in that area,” she said. “You still have some of the best demographics in all of Chicago right there.”

According to data from the Mid-America Asset Management, homes within a half-mile radius of the property have an average household income of over $151,000.

If the sale does go through, the Lincoln Park Centre property would be the third major Chicago site scooped up by Acadia in recent months. In May, the firm spent $28.4 million for a Lincoln Park retail property that included a Trader Joe’s, Express clothing store and an Urban Outfitters. The previous month, Acadia shelled out $31.6 million for retail space in the Heritage tower at 55 E. Randolph St.

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By Boyee from Mid-North in Lincoln Park
Posted: 12/04/2011 11:43 AM

The New City development doesn't seem like it is ever going to come to fruition. They might as well try to market and sell the property to DePaul, which is in desperate need of a mid-size stadium in the city.

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By Boyee from Mid-North in Lincoln Park
Posted: 12/01/2011 5:32 AM

The Borders store is technically in the Near North Side as Lincoln Park ends at North Avenue.