Developer to sell The Arboretum of South Barrington

The owners of The Arboretum of South Barrington are in the process of selling the shopping center, according to Michael Jaffe, whose company managed operations there since 2004.

The Arboretum is owned by The Jaffe Companies and Long Wharf Real Estate Partners LLC, a Boston-based company which bought the shopping center's outstanding debt in 2011, allowing it to avoid foreclosure.

Jaffe said the Arboretum has been a very important project to his company, and he said if the new buyer decides to keep them on to manage the Arboretum, that would be great.

“This project was not just bricks and mortar stuck in a corner to us; it really has been a labor of love,” Jaffe said. “A lot of guys would just do the deal, make the money and move on, but that's not what drives us.”

Jaffe said the shopping center is thriving right now, and has been trending upward for the past couple of years.

He said the only problem the Arboretum ever had was timing. The center opened in September 2008, at the start of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

Jaffe attributes the center's improvement to the economic recovery and the belief, passion and support of the community.

“The difficulties in the past are small specks in the rear view mirror at this point,” he said.

The sale will allow Jaffe and his partner, Long Wharf, to make back their investment and pay back their lender, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

South Barrington Village President Paula McCombie said she hopes the Jaffe group stays on because she believes they have done an excellent job.

“We have had a great relationship,” she said. “They have always been very responsive to everything the village has needed over the years.”

McCombie said she has been conducting a survey of every business in the shopping center and has found that they too are pleased with the management of the facility.

Jaffe said the owners have hired Eastdil Secured LLC to find a buyer.

Regardless of how the sale turns out, Jaffe said his group believes they have done what they set out to do with the center.

“It has been difficult for sure along the way, but our vision has always been to create a lasting destination that would create memories and a community for the Northwest suburbs,” he said. “We feel like we've accomplished that and that is hugely rewarding for us.”