New buyers acquire Village Crossing mall for $122 million, promise improvements

One of Skokie’s biggest shopping centers has a new owner. 

Harbert Management Corporation purchased Village Crossing, a 69-retailer shopping center at 5507 Touhy Ave., for $122 million in August, confirmed Brandon Duffy, a spokesperson for the Alabama-based private-owned asset management firm, via email. 

The more than 722,000-square-foot mall draws approximately 6.8 million visits a year to its numerous stores, which include Jewel-Osco, Best Buy, Dick’s Sporting Goods, AMC Theatres, Barnes & Nobles, PetSmart, Ulta, and Michaels, according to a press release from Harbert Management. 

Fairbourne Properties, the Chicago-based property management company that was maintaining the shopping center for its previous owner, Chicago-based Nuveen, will continue managing the mall, the release says. 

“This transaction highlights our conviction in retail centers that anchor their surrounding trade area and carry strong value-creation potential,” said Todd Jordan, the company’s managing director, in the press release. “We’re excited to partner with Fairbourne Properties and bring in tenants that further elevate the shopping experience for Village Crossing’s surrounding community.”

The transaction is one of the Chicago area’s largest retail property sales in a decade, according to Crain’s Chicago Business and Chicago Tribune, which reported a New York investor spent $175 million in 2017 to purchase a portion of the Sullivan Center in downtown Chicago. 

Village Crossing was completed in 1989, a Fairbourne Property webpage shows. Nuveen consolidated what used to be several individual shopping centers into Village Crossing, which is near the borders of Niles and Chicago, and the area is now 95% leased, The Real Deal reported. 

Harbert Management finalized the deal to purchase Village Crossing on Aug. 28, Duffy said. A number of the shopping center’s stores reportedly have committed to long-term lease renewals and material capital investment to anchor the mall as a “dominant retail destination,” according to the press release. 

First formed in 1993, Harbert Management Corporation is an Alabama-based privately owned “alternative asset manager with approximately $7.8 billion in regulatory assets,” according to the company’s statement. 

The company’s strategy is to acquire regionally dominant retail centers and create “additional value,” its statement says.

It apparently does so by filling vacancies, “improving the tenant mix” by targeting small-shop retailers and restaurants favored by the local community, and upgrading properties’ facades, landscaping and other features, the release says. 

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