Acadia Realty Trust inked two high-profile leases for its pair of adjacent buildings on Michigan Avenue in a rare win for the Magnificent Mile, a shopping corridor hammered by the fallout from the pandemic.
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Warner Bros. signed a lease for 10K SF across multiple levels at 676 N. Michigan Ave. and will open an interactive Harry Potter exhibit, CoStar first reported. Spanish clothing retailer Mango agreed to occupy about 17K SF at the neighboring 664 N. Michigan Ave., according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
The leases are welcome news for the shopping strip. As of the first quarter, Mag Mile retail vacancy sat at about 27%, up from 11% prepandemic.
Mango previously occupied a small store in Water Tower Place, which also hosted Harry Potter pop-up attractions in 2022 and 2023, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Acadia also signed an undisclosed “fashion and footwear lifestyle brand” to a 10K SF lease at 50-54 E. Walton St. just off the Mag Mile, according to the SEC filing.
“We’re starting to feel good about what’s happening on the Magnificent Mile,” Denise Chudy, spokesperson for the Magnificent Mile Association, told the Tribune.
There is still a long road ahead to a full rebound for the Mag Mile, as property values on the street have taken a beating in the past couple of years.
In August, North American Real Estate scooped up the 85K SF retail and office building at 605 N. Michigan Ave. for a reported $47M from Brookfield Properties. Mall owner GGP, which Brookfield bought out in 2018, purchased the property in December 2016 for $140M.
Brookfield also turned over the keys to Water Tower Place to its lender, MetLife, in 2022 after its equity in the mall was wiped out. At the end of 2023, Brookfield sold a 117K SF retail building at nearby 830 N. Michigan Ave. for $40M, far less than the $166M GGP bought it for in 2013.
