Trinity Pays $96M For Westmont Apartment Complex

Trinity Property Consultants is betting big on suburban Chicago’s multifamily market, completing the second largest deal in the suburbs this year.

The California-based firm with ties to the large apartments landlord FPA Multifamily has paid $96 million for the 558-unit Westmont Village apartment complex at 6715 Lake Shore Drive in Westmont, CoStar reported. That’s about $172,000 per unit.

The sellers, Marquette Companies and DRA Advisors, bought the complex for just over $70 million in 2018, shedding light on how much apartment demand has soared in Chicaland in recent years, despite hiked interest rates pushing down property values across much of the Chicago area.

While it’s unclear how much Marquette and DRA invested in the property, they renegotiated their loan on the property from HSBC Bank in December 2021, extending the maturity date to 2027 and raising the loan balance from $52.65 million to $67.25 million.

Multifamily transactions have totaled $2.4 billion in the Chicago area this year, and 2023 sales volume is expected to fall short of the $5.6 billion record set last year.

The priciest multifamily deal in the suburbs this year happened earlier this month, when Nuveen paid nearly $103 million for a 336-unit complex in Vernon Hills. Within the city limits, the highest-priced purchase came from the family office of billionaire Zara founder Amancio Ortega, which bought a 492-unit, 45-story luxury apartment in West Loop for $232 million.

While an FPA affiliate earlier this year picked up a vintage Naperville multifamily asset for $23 million, the firm has been a seller of bigger properties as of late. Last year, FPA affiliates sold large apartment complexes in Rolling Meadows and Bensenville, respectively, for $111 million and $106 million.

Although FPA focuses on the suburbs, one of its Trinity affiliates made an opportunistic purchase in downtown Chicago this year, too, when it bought the 17-story, 268-unit property known as the Seneca at 200 East Chestnut Street for $55 million in a big loss of property value for the seller, Vanbarton Group.

— Quinn Donoghue