Schaumburg sees opportunity in Streets of Woodfield sale

Streets of Woodfield shopping center in Schaumburg is going back on the market, just six years after New York-based private equity firm Blackstone purchased the property for $168.5 million.

The approximately 692,000-square-foot site across from Woodfield Mall includes a Whole Foods Market grocery store, Dick's Sporting Goods, Crate & Barrel and AMC Theatres.

Schaumburg Mayor Tom Dailly said he sees the sale as a potential opportunity. There has been little change to the shopping center during the six years of Blackstone's ownership, he said.

“We need a developer who's willing to put some money into it,” Dailly said. “We could have a streetscape that would be pretty cool.”

Though Blackstone has dealt with hardships such as the closing of the Carson's store and the later pandemic, Dailly said there was little evidence of a game plan from the property owner.

A number of new businesses have either moved in during the pandemic or are in the process of doing so, including BullsEye Axe Lounge, Selfie WRLD Schaumburg and Belong Gaming.

Schaumburg Economic Development Director Matt Frank said any new owner would inherit those leases, making major immediate changes unlikely.

Opening in 2000, Streets of Woodfield marked a complete overhaul of the property that had been the enclosed shopping center known as One Schaumburg Place during the 1990s.

As far as the prospective time frame for a sale, Frank said Blackstone can probably afford to be patient and wait for the right buyer, as the center has no outstanding debt and is a prime piece of property at the intersection of two major highways.

While Streets of Woodfield's Starbucks location permanently closed during the pandemic, GameWorks has been maintaining its temporary closure in consideration of its young clientele, Frank said.

Representatives of the property's management company, Oakbrook Terrace-based Mid-America Asset Management Inc., said they had no comment Wednesday.