Vanbarton Group Sells The Seneca at Loss in $55M Deal

A California real estate investor purchased a 268-unit apartment building in Streeterville at a steep discount.

Irvine, Calif.-based Trinity Property Consultants bought the Seneca, a 17-story building at 200 East Chestnut Street for $55 million, according to a Cook County deed transfer.

The building was sold by New York-based Vanbarton Group, a real estate investor that has holdings in residential, retail, office and hospitality properties. Vanbarton paid $74.9 million for the property in December 2014, marking a 26 percent decrease in the value of the property. The property traded hands for about $205,000 a unit, making it one of the best values a buyer has gotten for Chicago multifamily in premier Near North Side downtown submarkets in recent years.

Vanbarton Group initially listed the building, completed in 1924, with Cushman & Wakefield in the fall of 2019, though it never drew a buyer before the pandemic hit Illinois. The company moved the listing to Newmark’s multifamily team last year.

Attempts to reach the Vanbarton Group, Trinity Property Consultants and the brokers that managed the property at Newmark were unsuccessful.

Trinity has seven properties in the Chicago area already, including Arrive Streeterville, Arrive North Loop and Arrive South Loop. The new owner has taken out a $38.5 million mortgage with Berkadia to finance the Seneca purchase.

The Seneca was originally built in the 1920s as one of the city’s residential hotels, according to previous reporting. Prior to Vanbarton’s purchase, the building was owned and renovated into apartments by Chicago-based Waterton.

The massive loss for Vanbarton is another indicator of the challenges for Chicago’s multifamily market right now. Despite record-high rents, especially in the downtown area, investors are growing less bullish on the area, due to concerns in property tax hikes and rising interest rates.

In another recent loss in value on a Streeterville apartment complex, Miami-based Crescent Heights paid $173 million for the 400-unit apartment tower at 340 East North Water Street, handing the seller Invesco a big loss from its 2016 purchase of the asset for $240 million.