CHICAGO-If half of Safeway's 66 Dominick's supermarkets here fail to attract buyers by the Dec. 28th deadline, the Chicago retail market could see about two million square feet of vacant retail space come to market.
So much space hitting the market at once could force building owners to cut rents, look for non-grocer tenants or both, according to Crain's Chicago Business.
“I don't think that all of them can be absorbed, at least not for retail,” says Marc Rubin, principal at Chicago brokerage firm Cabanban Rubin & Mayberry LLC. He predicts only 35 of the 66 Dominick's on the market will remain supermarkets.
Potential buyers for the Dominick's locations include Jewel-Osco parent New Albertson's Inc. of suburban Minneapolis, Cincinnati-based Kroger Inc., and Mariano's, a subsidiary of Milwaukee-based Roundy's Inc. See story in Crain's Chicago Business.
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