Former Edens Plaza Carson's Sold For $14 Million

WILMETTE, IL — The site of the former Wilmette Carson's is under new ownership. The firm that purchased the rest of the Edens Plaza earlier this year closed a deal Wednesday to buy the shuttered department store.

For the first time since Carson Pirie Scott opened up shop at the northeast corner of the Edens Expressway and Lake Avenue in 1956, the shopping center is under a single owner. Edens Plaza's surrounding shops grew up around the Carson's and the whole mall was redeveloped in the 1990s. Last summer, parent company Bon-Ton Stores declared bankruptcy and closed all of its remaining stores.

"Having a unified owner, you view it as a positive," said Wilmette Community Development Director John Adler. "Having one entity control the whole center is definitely not a negative."

Newport Capital Partners bought the 180,000-square-foot Carson's building last week for $14 million, according to Ben Andrews, the firm's director of transactions. In December, the Chicago-based firm closed a $72 million deal to buy the rest of Edens Plaza.

Andrews said the firm expects to reconfigure the vacant building, keeping it intact and leasing it out to multiple tenants.

"This will be a continuation of Edens Plaza where there will be first-floor retail and perhaps mixed use and retail on the second floor," Andrews said. "We are looking into the opportunity and possibility of building more on top."

Though it will not become an enclosed mall space and Newport believes a "redevelopment is a better decision than a knock down and full ground-up development," there are no specific plans yet for the property, Andrews said. He said the firm is open to various proposals, and all scenarios currently under consideration will be exciting for the village.

"We do have some ideas, but we're in the discovery mode right now," Andrews said. "We are working with brokers and we're working with tenants and we're working with members of the community and we're doing our homework to make sure the best decisions are made for the property and the community."

Andrews said Edens Plaza is an "A-plus" retail location with a high level of visibility, good accessibility and an affluent population in the area. The shopping center "doesn't need a change of direction, it just needs some help moving forward."

Other than the Carson's, the only vacancy at Edens Plaza is the space formerly occupied by a Sports Authority, whose parent company went bankrupt in 2016. Andrews said the only tenants to leave the shopping center in recent decades have done so when their corporate parent company went out of business. He said there was high demand for the space and the firm planned to be "very strategic" with how it is leased in conjunction with the future use of the former Carson's store.

"It's putting the pieces of the puzzle together," he said. "We can't think about one space, we have to think about the property and how it works together, in terms of merchandising mix, tenant mix, the viability of the shopping center. What do people that live and work and shop and get services need and want in that area?"

Since 2012, Newport has owned Westlake Plaza, located across Lake Avenue to the South. As part of its investment strategy, the firm plans to sell the smaller strip mall this year after having improved its value. Newport manages both properties for different investors, Andrews said.

"We are focused on neighborhood convenience and necessity-based retail throughout the central U.S," Andrews said.

Newport, a 15-year-old private equity–backed real estate investment management firm, owns properties in Milwaukee, Chicago and Oak Brook, and is expanding into St. Louis and Kansas City.

"We are big believers in the evolution of retail. Retail is ever-evolving," Andrews said, pointing to the planned pediatric care center set to open later this year inside the former Carson's furniture gallery on the north side of Edens Plaza. The terms of the center's special use permit require the first floor of the department store to contain at least one anchor tenant with 50,000-square feet or more of retail space.

Earlier: Edens Plaza Sold To Real Estate Investor For $71.9 Million