Upscale Lincolnshire plaza in new hands
Lincolnshire officials are hopeful a Denver investment company will boost the fortunes of an underperforming upscale mall near Milwaukee Avenue and Route 22.
Baceline Investments LLC recently purchased Village Green from Citigroup Inc. for $12 million. An investment partnership bought Village Green at a bankruptcy auction for $22.2 million in 2004 and sold it for $27.9 million in 2007.
Village Green, which opened in 1996, has been more than restaurants and offices to Lincolnshire. It also is a place that draws visitors from across the suburbs for a popular annual art show and the Taste of Lincolnshire.
“We're hoping they (Baceline) can pump new life into ... Village Green and bring some new tenants in,” Lincolnshire Mayor Brett Blomberg said.
Baceline's director of business development, David Puchi, said Monday the firm specializes in revitalizing properties that have not lived up to potential because of poor ownership.
With Village Green about 70 percent occupied, Puchi said, Baceline plans to start boosting the plaza by attracting more restaurants and boutique retailers.
One possibility would be to divide a long-vacant, 10,000-square-foot space formerly occupied by Cucina Roma for use by three quick-serve eateries similar to Chipotle Mexican Grill, he said.
Puchi said one Village Green tenant told him “disinterested ownership” would be a kind way to describe why the upscale mall has underperformed.
“The ownership was clearly lacking in every direction,” Puchi said.
Lincolnshire coffers stand to benefit if Village Green reels in more sales. Village Manager Robert Irvin said elected officials have approved a half-cent local sales tax that'll begin in January.
Baceline bought Village Green out of foreclosure from Citigroup for $12 million in a deal that closed Nov. 18, Puchi said. Tunca Management LLC owned the plaza about three years before it was purchased by Special Assets Acquisitions Inc. in 2007.
Forrest David Laidley of Libertyville developed Village Green in 1996, but the property landed in Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2004 and then was sold to Tunca Management in the auction overseen in U.S. District Court.
Laidley, 66, will serve five years in a federal prison for scamming investors and financial institutions of more than $9 million. At his sentencing last month, he blamed the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks for money woes that halted Village Green's south extension in Lincolnshire, along with planned office and retail projects in Round Lake and Glenview.