Apple Store in Lincoln Park for sale

Selling any commercial real estate is tricky these days after the jump in interest rates last year, which has depressed property values. That’s generally true for properties that are net leased to single retail tenants, but a store with a marquee tenant like Apple falls into the trophy category.

For trophy assets or properties with long-term leases to retailers with strong credit, “we’re still seeing aggressive pricing,” said Michael Kaider, senior vice president at CBRE, one of the brokers marketing the store to investors.

Real estate investors who want to bet on Apple don’t have too many opportunities because the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech firm has so few standalone stores, Kaider said. Most Apple stores are in malls and other multi-tenant properties, like Westfield Old Orchard and Oak Brook Center.

When they do sell however, they often fetch a high price. In 2019, Atlanta-based Invesco paid $79 million, or about $3,900 per square foot, for the flagship Apple Store at Michigan Avenue and the Chicago River. On a per-square-foot basis, it ranked among the most expensive retail property sales ever in Chicago.

Kaider declined to say how much he expected the Lincoln Park property to sell for. The Cosio venture acquired the store in 2010 for $10.5 million, or $583 per square foot. In 2020, Cosio took out a $7 million loan on the property, according to a mortgage recorded with Cook County.

Attempts to reach Cosio, who has a residence in Miami, were unsuccessful. The son of a successful Mexican banker and businessman, Cosio inherited his fortune at age 14, after his father died in 1998. His financial circumstances broke into public view in 2020, when he sued two advisers, alleging that they took advantage of him to enrich themselves.

The Apple store occupies a prominent location, one of the Near North Side’s busiest intersections and right next to a CTA Red Line stop. Apple occupies the property under a lease that began in 2010. The lease initially expired in 2020, but it includes four five-year options for Apple to extend it, according to marketing brochure for the property when it was sold in 2010.