A fund created early in the pandemic to buy vacant retail properties and convert them into last-mile distribution centers has cashed in on its first property sale near Chicago, getting more than $24 million from an unexpected buyer: a nearby university.

Sterling Organization’s consumer logistics fund has sold a 152,000-square-foot former Fry’s Electronics store in Downers Grove, Illinois, for $24.5 million, according to DuPage County property records and a statement from the firm.

The buyer in the January deal was Midwestern University, which plans to create a teaching veterinary clinic in the west suburban building at 3300 Finley Road, according to a real estate transfer tax form.

It is the first sale from the $225 million fund, according to the statement from West Palm Beach, Florida-based Sterling.

Though the sale was not for a logistics use, as Sterling envisioned when creating the fund, the deal appears to have been a successful one. Sterling bought the building for just under $11.3 million in July 2021, after Fry’s closed all 31 of its stores throughout the country earlier that year, about a year into the health crisis that devastated the retail industry.

“This property holds special significance for our team, as it was fund’s first acquisition and now its first disposition,” Joe Dykstra, president of Sterling Logistics Properties, said in the statement. “We are pleased to be able to execute on this transaction and deliver the type of returns we believed we could for our investor partners whose support for this platform is greatly appreciated. “The successful sale of this asset aligns with our strategic vision and affirms our confidence in the fund and the continued growth of our logistics platform.”

Sterling obtained village board approval for a zoning change last year to allow some warehouse uses, and the firm marketed the 16-acre site as a potential fulfillment center along Interstates 355 and 88. It’s not clear how much Sterling spent configuring the former retail big box into a warehouse with drive-in doors, and the firm did not respond to requests for comment from CoStar News.

Midwestern University is a medical and professional school with a campus in Glendale, Arizona, and one just across the expressway in Downers Grove. The school did not respond to requests for comment about its plans for the former electronics store.

Sterling has $2 billion in assets under management across the country, with more than 12 million square feet of primarily retail real estate, according to the statement. The firm said it owns five other retail-to-logistics properties around the country and is seeking more.

The seller was represented by JLL brokers Dominic Carbonari, Kris Bjornson, Sam Brashler and Kate Coxworth.