Sam Zell’s overseas real estate business has invested in a Mexican shopping center landlord. Chicago-based Equity International said it acquired a stake in Grupo Acosta Verde, a Monterrey-based company that manages 26 shopping centers totaling 1.7 million square feet, including 11 it owns. The shopping center industry has high growth potential as consumer spending rises and the market shifts from “small, informal, individual storefront operations” to malls, Equity International said in a statement. “Acosta Verde is well-positioned to deploy capital with an experienced management team and a proven, scalable concept,” Equity International CEO Thomas Heneghan said in the statement. An Equity International spokeswoman declined to disclose the size of the investment. The firm said it bought its stake in a consortium including BlackRock and Altan Capital.

Wicker Park buildings put on the market

Chicago-based Centrum Partners has put a pair of commercial loft buildings in Wicker Park up for sale. The developer has hired Chicago-based brokerage Baum Realty to sell the Lofts at Wicker Park Commons at 1279 N. Milwaukee Ave. The sale includes the upper floors of two multistory buildings—a four-story, 65,000-square-foot building and a five-story, 73,000-square-foot building. Both buildings have first-floor retail space that is being listed in a separate sale through New York-based Eastdil Secured. The property is being offered without an asking price, Baum Managing Director Danny Spitz said. The buildings were part of a $33 million acquisition Centrum made in 2011 in a venture with New York-based Angelo Gordon & Co. Centrum has since renovated several buildings in the portfolio, including the Wieboldt’s department store building, and amassed more properties in the area. Spitz said the lofts have not been renovated. Larry Powers, a Centrum partner, declined to comment.

New York firm buys Albany Park shopping center

Time Equities, a New York-based real estate firm, paid $2.3 million for a shopping center in Albany Park near the Kimball Avenue stop on the Chicago Transit Authority’s Brown Line. The 17,480-square-foot shopping center at 4700 N. Kimball has seven tenants, including a dentist, laundromat, hair salon, bakery and three restaurants. It has one 2,400-square-foot vacancy, said Greg Dietz, managing director of Baum Realty, who represented the seller in the deal, Northbrook Bank & Trust, a subsidiary of Rosemont-based Wintrust Financial. Ami Ziff, director of national retail at Time Equities, said the shopping center adds to the company’s growing portfolio of “properties that are mainly occupied by service-oriented retailers that cater to the local community.” With similar shopping centers in Bedford Park and Joliet, the deal brings the firm’s portfolio of Chicago-area retail space to almost 97,000 square feet. Time Equities also acquired North Side apartment building last month. A representative from Northbrook Bank was not available.