Rustic Hills North will be transformed into an industrial commerce center.

The mostly vacant Rustic Hills North shopping center in Colorado Springs will be transformed into an industrial commerce center — a change that’s expected to help inject new life into the Academy Boulevard corridor.

Brennan Investment Group of suburban Chicago, a privately owned firm that acquires, develops and operates industrial facilities nationwide, paid $7 million last week to purchase the 22-acre Rustic Hills North, northeast of Academy and Palmer Park boulevards.

Built in the early 1970s, Rustic Hills North was once a thriving retail center and home to popular stores and businesses such as Albertsons and Longs Drugs that served east-side residents and neighborhoods.

Shifting demographics and changing retail patterns, however, left Rustic Hills North a shell of its former self as stores closed or moved to trendy Powers Boulevard to chase growing numbers of rooftops on the far east and northeast sides. Albertsons shuttered