Two Kildeer shopping centers hit the market

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Based on recent deals, the two properties could fetch more than $100 million combined.

The developer of two shopping centers in northwest suburban Kildeer has put them up for sale, testing investors’ enthusiasm for retail buildings in a shaky market.
Bond hired CBRE to sell Kildeer Marketplace and Kildeer Village Square, fully leased properties totaling about 265,000 square feet at Rand and Plum Grove roads. Bond built Kildeer Marketplace, a 65,500-square-foot shopping center anchored by a Whole Foods Market, in 2012, and in 2017 completed Kildeer Village Square, a 198,900-square-foot property with tenants including Nordstrom Rack, Art Van Furniture and Sierra Trading Post.
Though the real estate investment market overall is strong, investors are having a harder time figuring out what a shopping center is worth these days. Retail vacancies in the Chicago area are elevated after a wave of store closings, and healthy retailers aren’t expanding the way they used to.
After the demise of the Carson’s department chain, many investors are waiting for other shoes to drop—the fate of Sears Holdings will be decided soon by a bankruptcy judge—and the outlook for the market is unclear as online shopping continues to grow. Strip center values nationally have started to fall: An index of U.S. strip center values calculated by research firm Green Street Advisors declined 2 percent last year.
Yet the Kildeer properties are full of strong tenants in a healthy trade area, and investors are still willing to pay up for quality.
“The sky isn’t falling and our retailers are doing well,” said Robert Bond, co-founder and president of the Chicago-based developer.
ADVERTISINGHe’s said he’s willing to sell the shopping centers together or apart—or not at all.
“We’re evaluating market value, just like we would with any asset,” Bond said. “If the market agrees with my perception (of value), we’re sellers. If the market doesn’t agree with my perception, we’re not.”
He declined to say what he thinks the properties are worth, as did George Good, executive vice president at CBRE. But a back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests the shopping centers could fetch more than $100 million combined.
The properties generate annual net operating income of $6.3 million, according to a CBRE website marketing them. Similar shopping centers have sold the past couple of years at capitalization rates—first-year returns—of roughly 5.5 to 6 percent. In that range, the properties could fetch $104 million to $114 million.