Edens Plaza Sold To Real Estate Investor For $71.9 Million

WILMETTE, IL — The Edens Plaza shopping center in Wilmette was sold last month for $71.9 million to a Chicago real estate investment firm. The deal did not include the mall's former anchor, Carson's, which has been vacant since last year's bankruptcy of the Bon-Ton Stores.

With Carson Pirie Scott as an original tenant, Edens Plaza first opened in 1956 on the east side of the Edens Expressway, five years after the Chicago area's first expressway was completed, according to the Wilmette Historical Museum and Wilmette Public Library.

Bon-Ton still owns the 7.22 acres of land under the 155,000-square-foot former department store, and its sale remains tied up in bankruptcy court.

Newport Capital Partners purchased the rest of the shopping center on Dec. 21 from Edens Plaza LLC, a Delaware-based joint venture of 11 East Partners and Draper & Kramer, according to property records. Real estate news site The Real Deal was first to report the transaction.

Newport's managing principal, Derrick McGavic, declined to provide details about the firms plans for the site, but told Crain's Chicago Business the site had a strong upside with more than 200,000 people passing by every day and record of keeping tenants for as long as they remain in business.

"We believe the drama surrounding the death of retail is extraordinarily overrated," McGavic told Crain's. While department stores like Carson's and Sears face serious challenges, "neighborhood and convenience centers" are "extremely robust." Newport purchased the adjacent Westlake Plaza in 2012 and has since boosted its net operating income by more than 25 percent, according to the firm.

Current tenants include Bed Bath & Beyond, Big Blue Swim School, Corner Bakery, Five Guys, Fresh Market, the Great Escape and Walgreens. The shopping center had vacancies of less than 5 percent last year, a representative of its former owners told the village board. Besides Carson's, the only Edens Plaza vacancy is the former Sports Authority, which closed after the company's 2016 bankruptcy.

Last September, the Wilmette Village Board granted permission to open up a pediatric medical center in the vacated former Carson's Furniture Gallery. The $28.6 million joint venture of NorthShore University HealthSystem and Advocate Health Care plans to employ about 100 support staff and dozens of doctors. It signed a 10-year renewable lease for the site plaza with annual rents rising from about $801,000 over the first 12 months to over $1 million in its tenth year.

Edens Plaza was previously owned by defunct developer Joseph Freed Associates, whose president, Larry Freed, was convicted of federal fraud charges related to a $105 million line of credit and sentenced to three years in federal prison in August 2017. Another executive with the firm, Caroline Walters, negotiated a guilty plea and received a six-month prison sentence. Former Freed executives control 11 East Partners.

Related:

• Edens Plaza Pediatric Care Center Approved By Wilmette Board
• Former Carson's Space Could House Pediatric Care Center
• Edens Plaza Carson's Could Close By Year's End
• Edens Plaza Wants to Subdivide Vacant Borders Store