Micro-apartment developer Cedar Street Companies added the iconic Bridgeview Bank building to the long list of historic Uptown properties under its control.
An entity of Cedar Street bought the triangular 12-story office building this month for $18.7 million, according to Cook County property records. Managing partners Alex Samoylovich, Will Murphy and Mark Heffron secured a $13.1 million acquisition loan from Associated Bank.
Cedar Street’s Will Murphy
The developer bought the building at 4753 North Broadway from Bridgeview Bank, which operates one of its 13 Chicago-area branches on the ground floor. Bank executive vice president Tom Haleas signed the deed on behalf of the seller.
The pickup gives Cedar Street an even deeper foothold in Uptown, where it’s become known for buying up aging buildings and filling them with apartments as small as 300 square feet under its “Flats” property management brand. Its most recent project fit 40 studio and one-bedroom units inside a former synagogue at 5029 North Kenmore Avenue.
Two blocks north of the bank building, at 5050 North Broadway, the developer is gutting an existing structure and constructing two new buildings to deliver a combined 710 new apartments near the Argyle CTA Red Line station. In all, Cedar Street has about 1,500 new units under development citywide, including with major projects in River North and on the Near West Side.
It remains unclear what Cedar Street has in store for the bank building. Leaders of the company declined comment on the sale Tuesday.
Cedar Street’s Mark Heffron
The terra cotta complex, originally called the Sheridan Trust and Savings Bank Building, was built in two phases in 1924 and 1928, according to the 1993 book “AIA Guide to Chicago.” Its plaster ceiling was cast in Italy and shipped to Chicago in pieces.
Bridgeview Bank acquired the building in 2003 as part of its $57 million acquisition of Uptown National Bank, the Chicago Sun-Times reported at the time. Bridgeview and its $1.2 billion in assets were in turn bought by First Midwest Bank late last year, in a merger valued at $145 million.
The building’s office tenants include nonprofits Asian Human Services, RefugeeOne and the Center for Law and Social Work, as well as an Advocate medical office. A Starbucks also operates on the ground floor.
Across the street, Farpoint Development and Jam Productions are set to get underway this year on a $75 million rehab of the long-vacant Uptown Theatre.
Bridgeview Bank President and CEO William L. Conaghan died last month at age 63, according to an obituary published in the Chicago Tribune. Conaghan and Haleas were listed as co-managers of the Bridgeview entity that owned the building.
Representatives of the bank did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.