Big Suburban Chicago Multifamily Buildings Extend Streak

Suburban Chicago’s multifamily hot streak shows no signs of slowing, with interest rising in big complexes, whether they hold brand new high-end apartments or older mid-market units.

A newly constructed 162-unit luxury building in suburban DuPage County called the Winfield Station changed hands for $44 million in the second-priciest multifamily sale in the county this year, the Chicago Business Journal reported. That follows the $104 million sale of the 403-unit City View at the Highlands in January to mark DuPage County’s priciest deal this year.

A string of other big apartment complexes have traded since, including the $111 million sale of a 662-unit property in suburban Rolling Meadows that marked a 54 percent gain over its 2017 purchase price, and the previously unreported $34.3 million sale of the 309-unit Edenbridge Apartments in suburban Tinley Park south of Chicago. This year’s $137 million sale of the 1,155-unit Glen Ellyn Crossing complex to Los Angeles-based Turner Impact Capital netted an 80 percent profit for the seller, Chicago-based Rockwell Property and set a record for Chicago’s suburbs.

The Winfield apartments, purchased by Arizona-based Mango Shadow LLC at an implied value of $273,000 per unit, shows the premium investors will pay for newer properties. Construction completed on Winfield in August, while the Tinley Park property was built in the 1970s and its recent purchase implied a value of $111,000 per unit, below the $167,000 marks achieved by the deals for the Rolling Meadows property and another $32.3 million sale of a 192-unit Elk Grove Village complex.

“Investors will pay a premium for Class A multifamily properties in DuPage County because there’s a scarcity of newly constructed, amenity-rich developments in the immediate area,” said Jon Morgan of Chicago-based Interra Realty, which represented the Winfield seller, Chicago-based Synergy Construction Group.

Winfield Station was 82 percent occupied when the deal closed March 25 and includes 15 studios, 89 one-bedrooms and 58 two-bedrooms, and its amenities include resident lounge, business and fitness centers, an outdoor pool and kitchen, Interra said.

The Edenbridge buyer in Tinley Park was an entity that shares a Chicago address with Artisan Capital Group’s office, an investment firm with another office in Iowa and apartments across the midwest.

[CBJ] – Sam Lounsberry