Antioch Shopping Plaza

Antioch Shopping Plaza is an 87,762-square-foot open-air retail center at 460–510 Orchard Street, built in 1965 and sitting on 5.9 acres with 306 parking spaces in the middle of downtown Antioch.

Half the building is empty by floor area, including a 33,540-square-foot former grocery anchor the previous owner could not re-let. That vacancy is the reason the basis is $51 a square foot against an estimated replacement cost near $120.

Downtown Antioch anchors the Chain of Lakes retail corridor and is connected to Chicago by Metra. The village has its own TIF district and is investing in the corridor, and EM8 is already building Main & Orchard next door.

The anchor is the whole thesis. We subdivide the 33,540-square-foot former grocery into ten right-sized bays of roughly 2,850 square feet each, which is the format that actually leases in a suburban strip: service retail, food and drink, fitness, and medical.

Alongside that, a million dollars of capital goes into demising walls and storefronts, mechanical and electrical repair, a resurfaced lot, and new signage and paint. Most of it is leasing cost rather than cosmetics.

In-place rent averages just over $7 a square foot against a stabilized target near $11, so the upside is in re-letting space that is either empty or badly under-rented rather than in raising rents on sitting tenants. Occupancy is underwritten to 90% by year three.

Longer term, the parcel sits beside our Main & Orchard development, and the two together are worth more than either alone. Holding to redevelop stays an option rather than a requirement, because the stabilized centre pays its own way.