Petco, Pier 1 ink leases in South Loop
By: Micah Maidenberg
Petco Animal Supplies Inc. and Pier 1 Imports Inc. have agreed to open stores in the Roosevelt Road corridor, a retail strip that’s thriving in part because of a lack of nearby competition.
The pet supplies retailer leased more than 10,000 square feet in the Roosevelt Galleria building at 603-627 W. Roosevelt Road, according to Jeffrey Annenberg, principal at Skokie based Annenberg Investments Ltd. and part of the venture that owns the 42,000-square-foot property.
Two blocks east, the home decor chain leased 10,500 square feet in the Maxwell, developer Rob Bond, president of Chicago-based Bond Cos., confirmed in an email. A Bond venture is developing the property on Canal Street, just north of Roosevelt Road.
“What Roosevelt Road has turned into is what North Avenue is,” Mr. Annenberg said, referring to the main drag in the Clybourn Corridor.
Retailers are drawn to Roosevelt Road because the nearby residential population has boomed, and the nearest shopping area to the south is more than six miles away, said Allen Joffe, principal at Chicago-based Baum Realty Group LLC, who isn’t involved in either transaction.
That means retailers can draw in shoppers from a broad area.
“Your next really vital shopping area is really Hyde Park,” Mr. Joffe said.
Mr. Annenberg declined to discuss terms of Petco’s lease. In separate deals last year, his venture paid $4.9 million for the Galleria property, according to public records.
A media representative for San Diego-based Petco did not return a message requesting comment. A spokeswoman for Fort Worth, Texas-based Pier 1 had no immediate comment.
In the Roosevelt Galleria, Mr. Annenberg leased a 6,000-square-foot, two-story space to Hicksville, N.Y.-based mattress store Sleepy’s LLC and a 3,000-square-foot space to North Bergen, N.J.-based Vitamin Shoppe Inc. Both of those stores are already open.
Jason Gustaveson, vice president at Chicago-based Stone Real Estate Corp, represented Mr.
Annenberg’s venture in the leases. He still must fill 19,000 square feet, or a little less than half the space at Roosevelt Galleria.
