By Adam Greenberg, Vice President of Leasing
University Place is located in Carbondale, IL, a small city with the population of only 26,159 (as of July 2019). Carbondale is located in the Southern Illinois region, two-three hour drive from the major Midwest cities of Chicago, St. Louis and Nashville.
When DLC Management acquired University Place, we saw a great opportunity to revitalize the center by redeveloping the tenant mix. The major issue with the center at the time of the acquisition was that it was occupied by an under-performing department store.
Strategically, we took back this tenant and redeveloped the box to attract higher quality, and more relevant and in demand retailers. And even before the closing on the acquisition, DLC Management secured Best Buy as an anchor tenant.
Building on this momentum, we turned the underperforming center into a thriving one by bringing in a number of new first to market national retailers. Over the past years, Five Below, T.J. Maxx, Petco, Party City, Dicks, Best Buy, HomeGoods, Kirkland, MOD Pizza, McAlister’s Deli have joined University Place.
Recently, DLC has reconfigured some spaces to add more GLA onsite. The construction to welcome HomeGoods is well underway and it’s expected to open this year. Here’s how University Place looks then and now.
Another way we’ve created more value for University Place was by adding multiple pad sites. Currently, Arby’s and McDonalds, Aldi, Verizon and AT&T operate on their own pad site.
With the lineup of national retailers consisting of Best Buy, Jo-Anne Fabrics, Shoe Carnival, and Petco, it draws customers from over 60 miles away with a great mix tenant. Given the center’s proximity to Southern Illinois University, the center enjoys a steady foot traffic. As the chart below illustrates, about 384.7k customers visited University Place in the last six months.
More about University Place
University Place is a 249,561 SF property situated along Route 13, east of Marion and directly across the street from the University Mall. Flanked by Lowe’s Home Improvement Center and Wal-Mart Supercenter, this center lies in the heart of the dominant retail corridor of Carbondale. Click here to learn more.
