Work Starts on 237,000-SF Quarry Plaza

ALSIP, IL-Interstate Commercial Real Estate, based in Oak Brook, IL, has started construction on the Quarry Plaza retail development, which will be at 120th Street and Cicero Avenue. A joint venture between Interstate and Chicago-based Harlem Irving Co. purchased 23 acres at 12000 S. Cicero Ave. for $5 million, says Lynne Brackett, first vice president with CB Richard Ellis. CB Richard Ellis represented the seller, Georgia-based Mannheim Services Corp.

The parcel was formerly the site for the Greater Chicago Auto Auction, which has moved to Matteson, IL and “this was their excess real estate,” Brackett says. The parcel is near the Cicero Avenue interchange for I-294. “It is not easy to find large sites inside that I-294 area,” Brackett says. “And, Cicero is a really good retail corridor.”

Before housing the auction, the site at one time was a stone quarry, transitioned to a lake and then was paved over, says Heather Battaglia, a vice president with Interstate. Quarry Plaza will be anchored by Home Depot, which has purchased about 3.5 acres of the land from Interstate, Battaglia says. Home Depot will occupy 105,733 sf and have a 20,389-sf garden center, according to the most current site plan.

Other tenants include L.A. Fitness, which signed a lease for 45,000 sf. Ten-year leases have also been signed by Hair Cuttery, Starbucks Coffee and Jimmy John’s Gourmet Subs. Approximately 40,000 sf of the 237,970-sf retail center remains to be leased and Interstate is looking for junior anchors for the development now, says Marty Wynne, a partner with Interstate. The asking rate for space in the center is $30 per sf, net, with the asking rate for the junior anchor at $15 per sf, net, he says.

It is estimated to cost more than $17 million to construct the center, Wynne says. LaSalle Bank NA is providing a $15.3 million construction loan for the project. The village of Alsip approved $2.5 million in sales tax incentives for the project, Wynne says. A building on the site has already been demolished and some site work is currently being completed. The retail center is expected to be open by the second quarter of next year, he says.