Seritage Growth Properties, the real estate investment trust created in 2015 to buy all Sears properties and lease them back to the retailer as it sought to stave off liquidation, has sold the former Sears anchor property at the North Riverside Park Mall, 7501 Cermak Road.
The 13.2-acre parcel includes the 180,000-square foot, two-story big box at the north end of the shopping center; the parking lot immediately to the north, including the new Aldi store; the former Sears Auto Center, a portion of which has been converted into a Blink Fitness gym; and the parking lot immediately to the west of the former Sears store.
That property, along with 14 other former Sears locations owned by Seritage Growth Property, was acquired around the beginning of February by Fidelis Realty Partners, headquartered in suburban Houston.
Stacey Matejka, marketing manager for Fidelis, confirmed the sale to the Landmark. She said the company had no plans to redevelop the property, which has several tenants. In addition to Aldi and Blink Fitness, which occupy outlots, the property houses Round One, Amita Health and Forman Mills inside the former Sears retail anchor space.
“We’re just looking for tenants to fill a couple of vacancies,” Matejka said.
Terms of the sale were not disclosed. The Cook County Recorder of Deeds has not yet recorded the transaction.
Fidelis is the fourth owner of the north anchor property at North Riverside Park Mall. The first was Montgomery Ward, one of the three original anchor tenants at the mall, along with Carson Pirie Scott and J.C. Penney.
The deed to the property was acquired in 2001 by Sears Roebuck & Co., which conveyed the property to Seritage Growth properties in 2015. Fidelis purchased the property through a corporation called NR Park Associates LLC, whose management is listed in Illinois Secretary of State Records as Fidelis Retail Opportunity Fund II LP.
In 2021, J.C. Penney conveyed its property, which includes the retail store and parking lots to the south and east, to CTL Propco LLC, a real estate investment trust along the lines of Seritage. CTL Propco was created by J.C. Penny creditors in the wake of the retail giant seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May 2020.
The Feil Organization, which owns the shopping center proper, bought the former Carson’s anchor property in January.
— Bob Uphues
