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CHICAGO-Prime Finance, based in San Francisco, has provided a reported $145 million loan to the mostly vacant Roosevelt Collection retail mall in the South Loop. The joint venture owner, comprised of Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds and locally based McCaffery Interests, reportedly claims it has contracts to fill half the 400,000-square-foot retail property.

The JV bought the Collection and an attached 342-unit apartment complex for about $160 million last summer after the property only attracted a single tenant, a movie theater, though the purchase was made without financing. The new loan will help pay for a renovation of the vacant indoor shop space into an open-air facility, with new landscaping and amenities.

The apartments are doing great, at 98% occupied, and the venture has secured approvals to construct another residential tower on the site. Dan McCaffery, chairman and CEO, has reportedly said that the JV has secured leases for half of the mall, but won’t announce tenants until the 75% mark. “The South Loop has emerged as a most desired retail location in Chicago, second only to North Michigan Avenue,” he said in a statement.

It’s a wild statement to make regarding the South Loop, which borders the economically deprived South Side and has become a retail ghost town. However, McCaffery is putting money behind words, as his firm is working on a nearby $4 billion redevelopment of a former US Steel complex along Lake Michigan.

In the statement, Canyon-Johnson managing partners Bobby Turner and Rich Holly said the venture is following through on a promise to reposition the property. “Our improvements to the property are well underway, and it is shaping up to be one of the premier retail and residential venues in all of Chiago,” Holly said.

Instant Insights /

Failed Roosevelt Collection Garners $145M Redo Loan

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