After landing zoning approval and public backing for a $440 million overhaul of a huge shopping mall in Chicago’s northern suburbs, the property’s longtime owner is looking to hand off the ambitious, mixed-use project to another developer.
The Sterling Organization has hired JLL brokers to sell the 1.1 million-square-foot Golf Mill Town Center in Niles, Illinois, according to a marketing brochure.
Its move to sell the nearly 80-acre property comes less than a year after securing support from Niles’ board of trustees, including up to $96 million in tax-increment financing, for a redevelopment plan that includes reconfiguring the mall to an open-air layout and creating 300 apartments, medical offices, hotel rooms, entertainment and new retail.
West Palm Beach, Florida-based Sterling Organization has owned the mall at 239 Golf Mill Center since buying it for $60 million in 2014, according to CoStar data.
It’s unclear why the firm is now looking to sell the property rather than see through the redevelopment itself. Sterling did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CoStar News on Friday.
JLL is marketing it as an opportunity for upside through the large-scale redevelopment backed by public dollars, filling large blocks of empty space and pushing up below-market rents.
Current tenants include Target, LA Fitness, Burlington, Ross Dress for Less and Gordon Food Service.
Built in 1957 and renovated in 2007, the mall is 40% vacant, according to the JLL materials. The mall has 4.7 million visits annually, according to the brokerage.
Sterling is looking to hand off the development at a time of continued high borrowing and construction costs, and amid more recent concerns of a global trade war.
But the property could ride the wave of mall redevelopments including new elements, such as apartments and medical uses, throughout the country.
Similar projects in the Chicago area include French mall giant Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield’s recently launched first phase of the redevelopment of another North Shore mall, Westfield Old Orchard in Skokie.
The initial phase is set to include the demolition of a vacant Bloomingdale’s store and build more than 400 apartments, new restaurants and retail and new public common area and event space.
In another large project, the owner of the Yorktown Center mall in west suburban Lombard late last year began demolishing a former Carson’s department store to make way for about 600 apartments, a large park and new shops and restaurants. That property is owned by Los Angeles-based Pacific Retail Capital Partners.
For the record
The seller is represented by JLL brokers Danny Finkle, Jorge Portela, Michael Nieder and Brian Page.