NewMark Merrill Companies, Inc. acquired Lake Meadows Shopping Center, a 179,106-square-foot grocery anchored retail center on 16 acres on the corner of South Martin Luther King Drive and East 35th Street in Chicago from Draper and Kramer.
The center is anchored by Jewel-Osco, LA Fitness, Foot Locker, CVS Pharmacy, Citi Trends, and many other national, regional, and local merchants.
The company now owns and/or operates eight properties in the Chicago area including Stratford Crossing (Bloomingdale), Winston Plaza (Melrose Park), Stony Island Plaza (Chicago), Bricktown Square (Chicago), Marketplace at Six Corners (Chicago), Midway Square (Chicago), and Pulaski Promenade (Chicago) representing over 1.6M million square feet, over 200 merchants, and a combined asset value of over $300M.
NewMark Merrill plans to invest in Lake Meadows to upgrade the center, including improvements to signage, lighting, gathering spaces, as well as supporting the tenants in creating a meaningful customer experience. In addition, the Company will bring its commitment to local community connection through direct outreach, promoting the center’s businesses and operators, reaching out and connecting with the residents of the over 4,500 multifamily units surrounding Lake Meadows, and putting together events and services that cater to the neighborhood.
NewMark Merrill was represented in-house by Sandy Sigal, Jim Patton, Brad Pearl, Sandra Kist, Susan Rorison, and Matt Gugliciello. JLL Capital Market’s Investment Sales and Advisory team representing the seller was led by Managing Director Michael Nieder, Director Brian Page, and Associate John Dettlaff.
Lake Meadows Shopping Center is ideally located just minutes from downtown Chicago, and within walking distance of Lake Michigan. It is 85 percent leased to several prominent tenants including Jewel-Osco, LA Fitness, Foot Locker, Citi Trends and many other retailers, restaurants and service tenants.
NewMark Merrill also refinanced Winston Plaza in Melrose Park, IL with a new loan with Wells Fargo for long-term debt from Mutual of Omaha for $36 million. The company acquired the center in 2008 and completed an extensive remodeling and repositioning. Since the end of COVID, the center has added over 100,000 square feet of new merchants including a Cermak grocery store, Ross, Burlington, JD Sports, Sistar Beauty, and an expanded Five Below. The center currently sees over eight million visitors a year (up 22% over the last three years), with over 75% of those visitors visiting the site at least once a month and is ranked in the 99% percentile of all community centers in the state of Illinois.
