A new firm in Chicago’s developer ranks has purchased the former Treasure Island store in the Old Town Triangle neighborhood for $14.8 million, setting up a potential redevelopment of the Wells Street site that has been dormant since the grocery chain closed last year.
An affiliate of Chicago developer Fern Hill Co. bought the approximately 44,000-square-foot building Nov. 4, according to Cook County property records.
The developer’s plans for the site at 1635 N. Wells St. are unknown.
Nick Anderson, a former Related Midwest vice president of acquisitions and development who left the development giant last year to form Fern Hill, declined to comment on the purchase or plans for the property.
The seller was the Kamberos family, which owned the Treasure Island chain for 55 years before it went out of business last year.
The wide, single-story building is near Lincoln Park and the lakefront, and surrounded by bars, restaurants, shops and residential towers on Wells Street.
The Wells location is the second Treasure Island building to be sold since the company shut down all of its Chicago stores in October 2018.
The family owned four of the seven properties where it had grocery stores, including three on the city’s North Side.
Rebel Hospitality, which owns the neighboring Best Western Hawthorne Terrace Hotel and plans an expansion, paid $6 million for the parking structure next to the former Lakeview store at 3460 N. Broadway in August 2018.
In July, the Broadway store building and surface parking lot were sold to Glencoe-based architecture and development firm Optima for $12.85 million. Optima is seeking zoning approval to build an approximately 200-unit apartment building on the site, a plan that is being scaled down after pushback from neighbors.
Fern Hill has kept a low profile, but the firm has other projects in the works, including plans for a residential tower at 23 S. Sangamon St. in the Fulton Market district. Fern Hill also is seeking an office tenant for the third and fourth floors of the building at 360 N. State St., a space that previously housed the Museum of Broadcast Communications.
Twitter @Ryan_Ori