Red Robin Buys, Leases Sites in Suburbs

"The company plans to open more than a dozen new restaurants in the Chicago area over the next two years," says Zifkin executive vice president and principal Tyler R. Quast. "The ideal site will have parking for 105 cars, a three-mile-radius population of 100,000 people and a five-mile-radius population of 150,000. We are currently looking at 16 to 20 additional markets that have strong activity generators such as regional malls, big box shopping centers, multi-screen theater complexes, entertainment centers and office parks."

So far, Zifkin has negotiated leases for:

* 7,500 sf at Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, next to a Nordstrom department store. The Red Robin there has recently opened.

* 7,238 sf at Wheaton Town Square in that west suburb, where a restaurant is scheduled to open during August. Senior leasing representative Claudia N. Gatti of Oakbrook Terrace-based Mid-America Asset Management Group represented the owner of the 150,000-sf open-air mall.

* 6,200 sf in the 50-acre, mixed-use CityPark Lincolnshire being developed in that north suburb by Buffalo Grove-based Environmental Community Development Co. The restaurant is scheduled to open later this year. Jerry Becker of Chicago-based Becker Realty represented the developer.

Mach Robin, LLC also has bought two 1.5-acre sites in west suburban Warrenville and northwest suburban Algonquin. Red Robin built a 6,400-sf restaurant in an outlot of the mixed-use Cantera development at 28260 Diehl Rd., which opened in May. The outlot was sold by American Multi Cinema, which was represented by CB Richard Ellis vice president David Metrick. Another outlot was bought at Randall and Stonegate roads in Algonquin next to a Lifetime Fitness, The Home Depot and Meijer superstore.