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NEWS RELEASE
Pine Tree Commercial Completes Phase
I Conversion of Super K-Mart Bldg. into East Lloyd Commons
Phase II Leaps to an Early Start
EVANSVILLE, IND.
(Sept. 2, 2005) – Pine Tree Commercial Realty
of Lake Bluff, Ill., and GEM Investors
of Chicago, owners of the new East Lloyd Commons
retail center in Evansville, Ind., announced that Phase I
construction has been recently completed for what was once
a 170,000 square foot Super K-Mart.
The completely redeveloped project is now a 155,000-square-foot
mid-box regional strip center that will be fully open by October
15, 2005.
According to
Tim Roe, Executive Vice President
for Pine Tree, the anchors will open sooner, with Best
Buy already in full swing after a big
grand opening event on August 26. Michael’s
plans to open Sept. 4, and Gordman’s
plans to open on Sept. 16. The rest of the project consists
of specialty retail and dining.
Roe said that
construction for Phase I, which began in early 2005, involved
nearly razing the entire Super K-Mart building. “We
only retained a couple of walls,” Roe said. “So,
it looks very different.” He added that Phase II construction
will begin in October for a 19,000 square foot expansion adjacent
to Gordman’s on the westernmost end of the center. Of
this expansion, 10,000 square feet will be devoted to a national
special retail chain that is in final negotiation with Pine
Tree. The remaining space will be filled by small specialty
shops.
“We are
also anticipating the sale of a 1.74-acre outlot on Lloyd
Expressway to a national casual dining restaurant chain, which
will begin construction in October pending final negotiations,”
Roe said. “From the beginning, our intent was to build
a second phase after leasing the first phase, which we expected
to begin a year out from now. However, with the incredible
interest we have received from retailers, we were able to
move up the Phase II groundbreaking substantially.”
According to
Roe, the project’s location on the northwest corner
of Lloyd Expressway and Burkhardt Road is “the new Main
& Main of Evansville retail,” he explained. “Lloyd
Expressway itself is the nexus of retail, cutting through
about 800,000 square feet of big box retail at this intersection
-- and this was the last corner of it to be developed.”
Roe said that before Pine Tree and partner GEM Investors started
the project, they knew that Michaels and Best Buy, which both
had older, smaller stores in the Green River Road Mall
area, were interested in moving to larger spaces in a high
traffic location. Once Pine Tree secured these anchors at
East Lloyd Commons, the rest of the leasing was relatively
easy. In addition, Roe said that “the project gained
a lot of support from the community, which was happy to see
a vibrant new retail center going up on this site.”
Pine Tree Commercial
Realty continues to handle leasing and project management
for East Lloyd Commons, while BP Construction Services,
a wholly owned subsidiary of Pine Tree, oversees the construction.
Pine Tree Commercial
Realty, LLC is a full-service real estate development company
headquartered in Lake Bluff, Ill., with branch offices in
Indianapolis, Minneapolis, and Kansas City. The company, founded
in 1995 by principals Barry Herring
and Peter Borzak, is actively
involved in the development, acquisition, leasing, and management
of retail properties in the Midwestern United States. Pine
Tree and its affiliates also provide third party leasing,
management, and construction services.
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