Exclusive: How One Of Logan Square's Most Iconic Buildings Sold For The First Time In A Century

One of Logan Square’s oldest and most recognizable buildings has changed hands for the first time in a century. A JV between Outpost Development and Baum Revision acquired the two-story, 29k SF building at 1965 North Milwaukee Ave best-known as the longtime home to legendary sweet shop Margie’s Candies.

The off-market sale is Outpost Development founder Adam Radcliffe’s first major deal in the Chicago market since he founded Outpost in August 2015. How the deal came together may be more interesting than the 100-year-old building’s history. Adam, who lives three blocks away with his wife, Josefina, and their dog, was griping one day about the lack of unique deals available in the market. As they passed the building, his wife pointed to it and asked, “Why don’t you buy that?” From that seed grew an idea. Adam noticed the bank signage changed from Cole Taylor Bank to MB Financial, so he decided to seek out the building's owners about a possible sale.

Determining the building ownership wasn’t simple. Adam had to dig through old microfiche files at the county building to piece together the building’s ownership history. He ultimately discovered it was owned by seven different multigenerational trusts that could be traced back to the building’s original developer. Further complicating matters, a 99-year ground lease was in place that was originally signed in 1933. Adam was finally able to locate an owner through one of the trusts, contact that owner’s lawyer and move forward on putting together a deal.

Being new to Chicago, Adam knew he needed a partner on the complex acquisition and he was introduced to Baum Revision’s Scott Goldman, David Baum (pictured, left and right) and Mark Waligora through a mutual friend. Scott says he and Adam were able to connect personally, share the same values when it came to real estate development and Adam already generated a terrific opportunity by the time Baum Revision entered the picture. The building is right in Baum Revision’s adaptive reuse sweet spot, Scott says, and the asset’s infrastructure is a good fit. The Outpost-Baum partnership also allows Outpost to retain creative control of the redevelopment while tapping into the larger resources provided by Baum Revision.

With Baum Revision on board, Adam approached the owner of the ground lease. He assumed—correctly, it turns out—that the leasehold owner MB was looking to divest of the 99-year lease, as it no longer had use for the building. Once an agreement on the leasehold was reached, Adam met with the owners of Margie’s Candies to assure them they still had a home in the building. Margie’s has called the building home since 1921 and Adam realized the history and tradition of the business is a staple of the community, while providing the Outpost/Baum JV with an irreplaceable anchor tenant. The two sides are finalizing the details on a 15-year lease.

There's plenty of space to fill; Margie’s is the only tenant in the building, which was originally built for First Securities Bank. Adam says he and Baum Revision are dubbing the building The Mil-West and are talking with several prospective tenants ranging from retailers and popular local restaurateurs to co-working users. They have engaged Moss Design to create a plan that includes approximately 13k SF of retail on the ground floor and 20 one-of-a-kind apartments on the second floor.

Milwaukee Avenue is awash in multifamily activity these days and is one of Chicago’s busiest bike lanes. The Western Avenue Blue Line station is a half block away, making Mil-West an attractive TOD, and the Milwaukee, Western and Armitage buses all pass it. Mil-West is ideally situated in Logan Square, with Bucktown and Wicker Park to the southeast, Humboldt Park to the southwest, and the 606 and its surrounding developments ready to fill voids in the neighborhood. Adam says he doesn’t know what he’ll do for an encore yet, but with more developers zeroing in on Logan Square, he hopes he can find more unique opportunities by following the advice of Horace Greeley: “Go West, young man.”