Mid-America arranges Lombard sale of 68%-leased High Point Centre

Mid-America Real Estate Corporation's investment sales group has arranged the sale of High Point Centre, a 240,345-square-foot community center on Roosevelt Road in Lombard, Illinois, from a publicly traded REIT to a private investment group, according to Connect CRE; the coverage names neither party, and no price is disclosed. Ben Wineman, a principal at Mid-America, was the exclusive listing broker on behalf of the seller.

The 1992-vintage, three-plaza center at 401-581 E Roosevelt Road sits in western DuPage County near Yorktown Center and the major expressways, 68% leased to a mix of national and local tenants that includes LA Fitness, Altitude Trampoline Park, Ace Dental, Burger King, Mango Mango Desserts, Sport Clips, Seoul Bites Korean BBQ, Souq Market and Tropical Smoothie Café, and was offered with what the listing describes as significant value-add upside.

With roughly 77,000 of the center's 240,345 square feet producing no rent, a buyer pricing the whole building is underwriting a leasing plan whose income still has to be built. Retail pricing has decoupled from cap rates and is set by anchor lease duration, with the scarcity premium accruing to net-lease and grocery assets; High Point's roster, led by a fitness club and a trampoline park inside a 34-year-old strip center, suggests the buyer is pricing occupancy risk rather than a long rent roll.

The seller, unnamed beyond its public REIT status, is exiting an asset at two-thirds occupancy to a buyer, equally unnamed, that is private capital taking on the leasing job; neither side's arithmetic can be checked against a price, and the coverage does not say whether the center traded above or below the REIT's basis in it.

The trade also adds a second recent Chicago-area retail sale with no published price. DPI Retail's purchase of a Glenview grocery-anchored center, which this publication covered in September, likewise came without a disclosed figure, though that deal was framed as a platform entry into Chicago while this one is a single asset; two deals do not establish a convention, but they do thin the comp set for anyone valuing the next DuPage County center on price per square foot.

The work ahead is concrete: nine named tenants, a rent roll two-thirds let, and a 1992 building that the value-add framing implies will need capital before the empty space can be filled. The next number to move at High Point will most likely be a leased percentage.