Developer plans 3 small suburban shopping centers

A Buffalo Grove-based developer is rolling out three small suburban shopping centers, part of a broader uptick in suburban retail development after a prolonged slump.

Shorewood Development Group LLC recently broke ground on Meacham Gatherings, a 19,000-square-foot shopping center at 900 N. Meacham Road in Schaumburg. Shorewood also plans projects in Oswego and Countryside.

Shorewood already has leased 75 percent of the Schaumburg property to retailers including Protein Bar, Roti and Potbelly Sandwich Works.

Louis Schriber, founding partner and CEO at Shorewood, plans to break ground this month on a multi-building shopping center near La Grange and Joliet roads in Countryside that will include a 7,400-square-foot Texas Roadhouse, Starbucks, Vitamin Shoppe and Potbelly.

Shorewood also is getting ready to begin construction on a project near Fifth Street and U.S. 34 in Oswego that will include a 6,900-square-foot building leased to a Noodles & Co., Supercuts and Potbelly. Another 5,700-square-foot building is more than half leased to an urgent-care clinic, Mr. Schriber said.

After a bruising recession, retail development is picking up again. New projects added 1.14 million square feet to the Chicago metropolitan area last year, up 10 percent from 1.02 million in 2011, according to a report by Mid-America Real Estate Corp.

“It looks like we've bottomed out and are slowly starting to see the end of the recession that stalled the shopping center development business,” Andy Bulsom, the author of the report, said in a statement.

Developers are forecast to build another 900,000 square feet in 2013, an 8 percent increase.