VERNON HILLS, ILL. — Six new tenants are slated to open at Hawthorn, a regional shopping center undergoing redevelopment in the Chicago suburb of Vernon Hills. Sephora, Anthropologie, FP Movement and The Lovesac Co. will open this year at the new Hawthorn Row outdoor streetscape. Also this year, Perry’s Steakhouse & Grille will open on an outparcel along Milwaukee Avenue. In 2025, Dom’s Kitchen & Market will open along Townline Road next to the Sleep Number store. The Domaine, a 311-unit luxury apartment complex, recently opened on the east side of the Hawthorn property. The next phase of development calls for another 250 apartment units and a three-acre amenitized plaza, a new food gallery on the upper level, and the addition of curated food and beverage tenants for the center’s ring road outparcels. Hawthorn originally opened 50 years ago.
LAGRANGE, GA. — Zach Taylor of Institutional Property Advisors (IPA), a division of Marcus & Millichap, has brokered the $16 million sale of a newly built shopping center located in LaGrange, a Georgia city near the Georgia-Alabama border along I-85. The center’s anchor, Publix, has a 10-year lease on the store. Taylor represented the seller, a developer based in Atlanta, as well as sourced the 1031 exchange buyer in the transaction. Both parties requested anonymity. “This sale faced the market headwinds of increasing interest rates and low transactional velocity,” says Taylor. “Thankfully, we found a 1031 buyer attracted to the quality of the tenant mix and the growth of the submarket. We were able to clear the market at a very attractive cap rate.”
CARY, N.C. — Two new retailers and five office users have signed on to join the tenant roster at Fenton, a 92-acre mixed-use development in the Raleigh suburb of Cary. The nearly $1 billion development is co-owned by Hines and Columbia Development. The new retailers, Brewery Bhavana and Vega Vitality, plan to open their locations at Fenton before the end of the year. Two other retailers opened in late 2023: Johnny Was and Rejuvenation. Bruce Koniver of Odyssey Retail Advisors is leading Fenton’s retail leasing, which is currently 94 percent committed. The five companies that signed office leases at Fenton include Cushman & Wakefield, IPS, Prologis, AIMA and Surety Systems. The property’s office component currently spans 200,000 square feet, with future phases allowing up to 1 million square feet.
HUNTSVILLE, ALA. — An affiliate of grocer Food City has purchased two acres in Huntsville from The Beach Co. The entity is Marathon Realty Corp., a real estate subsidiary of Food City parent company K-VA-T Food Stores Inc. The site is located between The Foundry, The Range and Stovehouse along Governors Drive and will be connected to the developments via a 10-foot-wide pedestrian sidewalk. Marathon Realty plans to break ground on the new store next quarter with plans for an early 2025 opening. Last year Marathon Realty entered into a development agreement with the City of Huntsville to develop six new Food City grocery stores in the greater Huntsville area.
NAPERVILLE, ILL. — NewQuest Asia-Pacific Retail is scheduled to break ground in February on the redevelopment of a former Dominick’s-anchored shopping center in Naperville. The Houston-based developer acquired the 140,892-square-foot property eight months ago in an off-market transaction. The 27-year-old center is 35 percent leased. NewQuest Asia-Pacific Retail specializes in development opportunities in markets with high Asian populations. The developer plans to reposition the Naperville shopping center with an Asian focus and incorporate green spaces. To date, roughly 62,000 square feet of leases are in various stages of negotiations, including a commitment from a specialty grocer. Teso Life, a Japanese fashion casual store, is leasing 18,016 square feet. Completion is slated for summer 2025. Nearly 20 percent of Naperville’s population is Asian, according to NewQuest.
ROCKFORD, ILL. — Quantum Real Estate Advisors Inc. has brokered the sale of a recently developed property occupied by Dollar General in Rockford for an undisclosed price. Constructed in 2021, the freestanding building totals 10,600 square feet. Dan Waszak of Quantum represented the buyer, a New York City-based investor. The seller was a Midwest-based developer.
SAN RAMON, CALIF. — PSRS has arranged $3.7 million in bridge financing of Pointe West Plaza, a retail property located in San Ramon, east of the Bay Area. Jonny Soleimani and Matthew Farzinpour of PSRS secured the financing for the undisclosed borrower. Built in 1990, the property is a 16,921-square-foot, multi-tenant retail center. Current tenants include a billiards venue, salon, bistro and Chinese restaurant. The property also features underground and surface parking, totaling 82 spaces. A debt fund provided the 12-month loan, which features no prepayment penalty.
HOUSTON — JLL has arranged the sale of Garden Oaks Shopping Center, a 13,877-square-foot retail strip center in northwest Houston. The center was built in 1950 and was fully leased at the time of sale to tenants such as Upside Pub, Pinks Pizza, Village Liquor, Community Vet and Molly’s Mutt House. Ryan West, John Indelli and Clay Andersen of JLL represented the seller, Fifth Corner, in the transaction. Meredith Cullen and David Cook with Cushman & Wakefield represented the undisclosed buyer.
PARAMUS, N.J. — Barnes & Noble has opened a 35,000-square-foot store in the Northern New Jersey community of Paramus. The bookseller is backfilling a space formerly occupied by Big Lots at 765 Route 17 S. Marc Palestina of New Jersey-based brokerage firm The Goldstein Group represented Barnes & Noble in the lease negotiations. Joe Dougherty of Metro Commercial represented Big Lots, which previously occupied the space.
By Ryan Johnson and Tyler Grisham, managing partners and market leaders, SRS Real Estate Partners Those who live and work in Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) should be grateful for the metroplex’s strong fundamentals. There are a lot of macro-level factors that are out of whack and hurting the commercial real estate business, but there are also a lot of macro factors working in favor of DFW that not many major markets in the United States can claim. Thinking glass half-full, DFW has enjoyed exceptional growth in employment, housing and population over the last decade. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, DFW now boasts nearly 8 million residents, which makes it the nation’s fourth-largest metropolitan area. According to the Dallas Regional Chamber, 14 major companies relocated to North Texas in 2023 — Kelly Moore Paint Co., Inbenta, McAfee Corp., Frontier Communications and West Shore Homes, among others. Thinking glass half-empty, DFW has sky-high construction costs, the highest interest rates in recent memory, highest exit cap rates/lowest valuations in recent memory and just a general market mentality that causes developers, banks and investors to exercise great caution. Active Segments, Trends Given these challenges, it may be surprising that there are retailers that are …