Phillips Edison Buys Chicago-Area Retail Center for $53M

October 21, 2026

Investment Chicago Midwest News More Retail

Pete's Fresh Market anchors the shopping center.

Exterior of Pete's Market in Rice Lake Square in Wheaton, Ill. — Rice Lake Square in Wheaton, Ill., is anchored by Pete’s Fresh Market, which operates under a long-term lease. *Image courtesy of Mid-America Real Estate Corp.*

Phillips Edison & Co. has acquired Rice Lake Square, a 244,924-square-foot grocery-anchored Class A retail center in the western Chicago suburb of Wheaton, Ill., for $52.8 million, according to Yardi Matrix. Core Acquisitions sold the asset in a deal brokered by Mid-America Real Estate Corp.

Core previously purchased the retail center in 2024 for $34.3 million, Yardi Matrix shows. The center is currently 98.2 percent occupied. Rice Lake Square is anchored by a Pete’s Fresh Market grocery store operating on a long-term lease. Other tenants include PetSmart, Massage Envy, Pure Barre, Xfinity, Potbelly, 7Brew and Taco Bell.

Located at 1 Rice Lake Square in Wheaton, Ill., the center is situated in an infill trade area with more than 78,000 residents within a three-mile radius. Average household incomes in the area are $164,400, while median home values stand at $474,800.

The Mid-America Real Estate Corp. Investment Sales Group that arranged the sale included Principals Rick Drogosz and Joe Girardi and Senior Associate Patrick Corrigan.

Retail market holds steady

Last week, Phillips Edison purchased Alafaya Square, a 168,532-square-foot grocery-anchored center in Oviedo, Fla., northeast of Orlando, for $69.1 million. A joint venture between MCB Real Estate and an institutional investor sold the property in a transaction arranged by JLL. The deal was reportedly the largest single-asset retail acquisition in Seminole County’s history.

Chicagoland’s retail market is better characterized by stable fundamentals than by rapid growth, according to a midyear report from Colliers. Essential-traffic anchor tenants like grocery stores, fitness operators and restaurants continue to attract other tenants and bring stronger resilience to their settings than discretionary retail.

Community centers in the Lisle-Naperville submarket total 70-odd properties aggregating some 66 million square feet of space. The total availability is 9.2 percent, while net absorption was negative 8,700 square feet through the first half of the year, also per Colliers.