Lena's Food Stores and NWSCDC Finalize Loan for Lena's Expansion at Midtown Center

Funded in part by the US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Community Services, Lena's will use $600,000 lent to them from Northwest Side CDC to separate their Midtown location and lease 13,000 sf to CitiTrends, a publicly traded, national retailer. The lease was negotiated by Commercial Properties Associates.Midtown Center, owned and operated by Inland Western, a Chicago based REIT, is one of the Milwaukee area's largest shopping centers, who recently concluded Phase Three adding new small retailers at N. 55th and West Capitol Drive."We are extremely pleased, and grateful to the CDC and OCS for closing on this loan. Our store at Midtown was too big and with the downturn in the economy, leasing a third of the space and driving new customers into Lena's makes all the sense in the world."This loan represents the CDC's second loan to Lena's, the first at West Capitol and Teutonia Ave., converting a closed Kohl's into a Lena's brand. The CDC also lent funds to Inland Western for Phase Two of the Midtown expansion. "The synergy between the two loans at Midtown and two Lena's on Capitol Drive is obvious and will continue the drive toward quality retail up and down the commercial strip. We have lent $1,625,000 in three catalytic projects on West Capitol. These are the kind of loans and investments that we should be making", said Howard Snyder, the CDC's chief executive.Officials associated with the project estimate the number of new jobs at 82.