Chicago area real estate firm acquires Battle Creek shopping mall;

f irst acquisition in Michigan market

BARRINGTON, IL -- GK Development, Inc., a real estate acquisit ion and

development company, has snapped up a Michigan shopping center. This is the

company’s f irst acquisit ion in the Michigan market.

The f irm has acquired Lakeview Square Mall, a 559,059 -square-foot

regional mall located at I -94 and State Highway 66 in Batt le Creek for $8.8

mil l ion.

“This was an outstanding opportunity to purchase a wel l located regional

shopping mall at the ‘r ight ’ pr ice, with strong anchors and nat ional retai lers

already in place,” said Garo Kholamian, president of GK Development, Inc.

“Lakeview Square Mall f i ts our core strategy of purchasing value -added

propert ies that require re-tenant ing or other improvements at a cost far below

replacement cost,” he added.

The property had been in foreclosure.

Lakeview Square Mall is located in a strong retail corr idor, at the

intersection of a primary interstate and state highway, in western Michigan,

affording easy and convenient accessibi l i ty for 135,000 consumers. The

intersection has roughly 3 mil l ion square feet of retail space. Average daily

traff ic counts are 43,000 vehicles on I -94 and 27,000 vehicles on MI -66.

Lakeview Square major tenants include JCPenney, Mac y’s and Sears.

The mall also boasts numerous name brand nat ional and regional retai lers

including Aeropostale, Aunt ie Anne’s, Barnes & Noble, Bath & Body Works, The

Buckle, Dunham’s Sports, Finish Line, Sterl ing Jewelers, Maurices, Payless

ShoeSource, Pear le Vision, rue 21, Victoria’s Secret and Zale’s. The mall also

offers a variety of amenit ies such as a 10 - screen GKC Theaters, sit down

restaurants Buffalo Wild Wings, Applebee’s and Don Pablo’s.

“Retailers expansion plans favor exist ing propert ies that can provide

quality space at competit ive rents. Lakeview Square Mall f i ts that cr iter ion,”

said Kholamian. “Our object ive is to aggressively seek new retai lers to

complement the current roster of name brand retailers and provide an enhanced

shopping experience for our guests,” he added.

Leading the Lakeview Square property team wil l be new general manager

Mark Dycus. Dycus, who has more than 28 years experience in shopping center

management, leasing and property operations, wi l l assume his new posit ion

Apri l 8.

Recently Dycus was a property manager with Ann Arbor based McKinley

Inc., a national real estate company. His previous exper ience includes

management posit ions at two Michigan malls, Bay City Mall, Bay City, and

MeadowBrook Vil lage Mall, Rochester; and several Flor ida malls including

Panama City Mall, Panama City, and Cordova Mall, Pensacola.

The acquisit ion marks the company’s second signif icant purchase in l i t t le

more than a year. In February 2012, the company acquired Yorkshire Plaza, a

362,000- square- foot power center in Aurora, I l l inois. “The market has eased

somewhat and lending has opened up, affording us an opportunity to add this

center to our portfol io,” said Kholamian.

Between 2004 and 2006 the company added 3.9 mil l ion square feet to its

portfolio, including 10 shopping centers located throughout the Midwest,

northwest and south central states.

Lakeview Square Mall was bui lt in 1982 and renovated in 1999. I t

occupies a 31.59 acre site.

The seller was 5775 Beckley Road Holdings, LLC, a Maryland l imited

l iabil i ty company.

Thomas E. Dobrowski, Cameron Pittman, Chris Turner and Michael

Wesson of Rockwood Real Estate Advisors represented the sel ler. Key Bank

provided f inancing for the transaction. Melissa Pielet of HSA Commercial Real

Estate arranged the f inancing for GK Development.

About GK Development, Inc.

GK Development, Inc. has a portfolio of 5.2 mil l ion square feet of space in nine

states. The Barrington, I l l inois -based real estate company was founded in

1995. For more information, visit www.gkdevelopment.com.

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