Ex-Sports Authority Spaces Going Fast

Next Realty’s 7233 W. Dempster in Niles, IL, had hosted a Sports Authority for decades, and has filled much of that space.

CHICAGO—The demise of The Sports Authority left some big holes in Chicagoland’s retail market, but landlords have already filled much of that space. Next Realty, LLC just completed several leases for its community retail center at 7233 West Dempster St. in Niles totaling more than 46,000 square feet, including more than half of the space previously leased by Sports Authority.

“In the retail world, the internet is hurting many tenants,” Marc Blum, president of Skokie, IL-based Next Realty, LLC, tells GlobeSt.com, “but great locations are still great locations.” And the high traffic counts, impressive demographics, and other solid fundamentals inevitably draws retailers to Niles. “It checks all of those boxes. The people who live in the neighborhood still shop there.”