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Another shopping center planned for South Loop
By Eddie Baeb
Nov. 29, 2006
The burgeoning South Loop retail scene around Roosevelt Road is getting more crowded.
A venture that includes retail developer John Terzakis is planning
a three-floor, 225,000-square-foot shopping center dubbed South Loop Commons north of the corner of Canal and Taylor streets.
Meanwhile, Joffco Development LLC has added
Best Buy and possibly a La-Z-Boy store to a Home Depot-anchored project just south at Roosevelt and Clinton Street that’s scheduled to open early next year.
“It’s a dynamic, very hot new retail corridor that people have likened to the North Avenue-Clybourn corridor,” says Leon Joffe, president of Northbrook-based Joffco. “You’ve got major retailers coming in or looking to come in.”
South Loop Commons is scheduled to open in spring 2009, with construction beginning early next year, says Joe Parrott, a CB Richard Ellis Inc. senior vice-president who began marketing the project to retailers earlier this year and hasn’t announced any tenants.
The center, at 1001 S. Clinton St., will be built atop the foundation of an industrial building that was the headquarters and warehouse of local retailer Chernin’s Shoes Inc.
The site is across Canal from the 300,000-square-foot Southgate Market, which is scheduled to open early next year and is to include a Whole Foods Market, Linens ’n’ Things and DSW shoe store.
Two larger mixed-use retail and residential developments are also being planned along Roosevelt just east across the Chicago River.
Retailers are looking to seize on the surging population of the South Loop.
The population within one mile of where South Loop Commons is planned grew more than 16% from 2000 to 2006, according to CB Richard Ellis.
The population, with an average household income of $82,933, is estimated to grow another 10.4% by 2011.
South Loop Commons is to include three floors of retail, most fronting Canal Street, and four floors of parking with a total of 464 spaces. The center is being developed by Chicago-based real estate investment firm Equibase Capital Group LLC and Mr. Terkazis’ Single Site Solutions Corp. of west suburban Willowbrook.
Equibase and Mr. Terzakis bought the old Chernin’s building for $19.8 million from Chicago-based Sterling Bay Cos. in October 2005, according to property records. Executives at Equibase and Single Site Solutions didn’t return calls seeking comment.
Mr. Joffe says Best Buy Co. signed a lease at his Joffco Square development a few months ago and that the 45,000-square-foot Best Buy store is to open in March 2008. Company spokespeople at the suburban Minneapolis-based electronics retailer didn’t return calls seeking comment.
Mr. Joffe also has a letter of intent with La-Z-Boy Inc. to lease about 15,000 square feet on the second floor above Best Buy. It would be La-Z-Boy’s second store in the city.
Monroe, Mich.-based La-Z-Boy last year acquired all 13 of its Chicago-area stores from franchisees and is looking to expand in the city and suburbs, says a company spokeswoman, declining to discuss any specific locations.