This Week's Chicago Deal Sheet
Chicago-based TLC Management bought Ravenswood Terrace Apartments, a 150-unit rental property at 1801 West Argyle St. on Chicago’s north side, for $46M. Monarch Realty Partners co-founder Bill Baumann represented TLC.
“Even during the pandemic, we continue to see buyers invest in multifamily properties especially where you have a high-quality asset, strong location or, in this case, both,” Baumann said.
Built in 2014 by Chicago developer Belgravia Group, the property was recapitalized in 2016 when The Carlyle Group purchased a majority interest in the property.
The complex features a clubhouse, fitness center, rooftop deck, community garden and large open courtyard. The property is 7.5 miles north of downtown Chicago and approximately 2.5 miles north of Wrigley Field.
“Ravenswood Terrace is a unique asset for the city in that it is a modern, garden-style property more typical of suburban markets where land is more plentiful,” Baumann said. “In this case, the developers had a rare 3-acre urban site on a tree-lined street that was also adjacent to the Metra train station and a Mariano’s grocery. It’s a terrific site.”
“We’ve seen strong investor demand for such properties and believe COVID-19 has only enhanced their value as renters spend more time in their apartments and desire high-quality apartments in which to live and, increasingly, work.”
EXECS
Lee & Associates of Illinois hired Douglas Altenberger in its industrial team as executive vice president. For the last few years, Altenberger was a principal with Stonegate Properties, where he developed and managed more than 1M SF of commercial and office space and more than 250K SF of retail space in the Chicagoland area. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was a member of the basketball team and later was drafted in the third round by the Chicago Bulls.
SALES
Wolcott Group sold a six-building multifamily portfolio in Chicago’s Kenwood neighborhood for nearly $18M. Comprising 204 units, the buildings are at 4001 South Ellis Ave., 4433 South Greenwood Ave., 4737 South Ingleside Ave., 4746 South Ingleside Ave., 4500 South Drexel Blvd. and 811 East 46th St., all within about a mile of each other.
The price per unit was about $88K. Interra Realty’s David Goss, Jon Morgan, Ted Stratman and Lucas Fryman represented the seller and undisclosed buyer. The buyer plans to upgrade units as they turn over and lease additional units that were previously offline. The properties were built between 1908 and 1928 and were 93% occupied at the time of sale, according to Interra officials.
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Chicago-based GW Properties sold a multi-tenant retail building net leased to three tenants in the suburban Chicago community of Mount Prospect to Los Angeles-based Harold Davidson & Associates for $3.95M. Alex Sharrin and Alex Geanakos led a JLL Capital Markets team that worked on behalf of GW Properties. Constructed in 1966, the building at 920 East Elmhurst Road was completely renovated in 2019.
LEASES
Imperfect Foods signed a long-term lease to expand its operations at Bridge Point Northlake by 45K SF, according to Bridge Development Partners and PGIM Real Estate. Formerly known as Imperfect Produce, Imperfect Foods now occupies a total of 106K SF at the 480K SF cold storage facility, having expanded to meet the exponential increase in demand for delivered food and household products brought on by the nationwide coronavirus pandemic. CBRE’s Jason Lev and John Suerth brokered the deal for both parties, and serve as the leasing brokers for the remaining space in the development.
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Baum Realty Group’s Ari Topper and Tyler Dechter signed KDM Engineering to a 35K SF lease to anchor 1308 North Elston Ave. KDM, a certified minority-owned and woman-owned certified enterprise, will move its headquarters from 35 East Wacker Drive in the spring of 2021. 1308 North Elston is a joint venture between Farpoint Development and Greco/DeRosa Investment Group. Formerly a light fixture factory, the 100-year-old brick-and-timber loft offers 71K SF of Class-A office space along I-90 near the Division Street exit.
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Chicago-based Fifield Cos. announced the opening of its anchor tenant, a 27K SF small-format Target store, at Logan Apartments, the 220-unit mixed-use development at 2480-2252 North Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood. A mix of other stores and restaurants also signed leases for the ground-floor retail space, including Jeni’s Ice Cream, Pure Barre, Verizon and Aligned Modern Health. Big Wig Tacos and K-Fire Korean BBQ have already opened. Logan Apartments opened in March.
CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT
Principle Construction Corp. completed construction on a 205K SF building at 8500 116th St. in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. The asset was originally developed as a speculative project, but a lease was signed on the building in late fall. Principle’s Mark Augustyn served as the principal on the project. Principle’s Jon Anderson and Mark Frane were project manager and superintendent, respectively. Partners in Design acted as the project architect.
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Construction manager Skender completed interior construction of the 30K SF laboratory and research office space for Exicure Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company. It’s the first tenant in developer Sterling Bay’s redeveloped life sciences building at 2430 North Halsted St. Skender collaborated with Sterling Bay, CannonDesign and CBRE to complete Exicure’s space, which occupies the entire fourth floor.
THIS AND THAT
The ongoing pandemic has accelerated the slowdown in apartment deliveries that has been visible since the 2018 peak, according to RENTCafé. Following a national trend, construction in Chicagoland dropped 26% from last year, bringing the apartment supply to a five-year low. The metro area will see 7,704 new units by the end of 2020, compared to 10,473 new apartments hitting the market last year.
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CommercialCafé put together a new study to measure parks and walkability in 53 U.S. cities. It found that Chicago and its surroundings have 662 miles of improved and natural trails, earning the city the third spot for this metric. Other findings: The average walk to work in Chicago takes 17 minutes, with 5.62% of commuters choosing to do this — the 12th-highest share in CommercialCafé's study; and park spending per resident in Chicago is $191, the eighth-largest amount out of the cities CommercialCafé studied.
