Coastal Ridge Pays $60M for Des Plaines Apartments

Ohio real estate investment firm Coastal Ridge picked up a large luxury apartment complex northwest of Chicago for almost $60 million.

Multifamily specialist CP Capital US sold the 236-unit wrap-style building, dubbed The Monarch, for $58.7 million on Sept. 12, according to Cook County records.

“We pinpointed a unique opportunity to bring affordable, luxury apartment rentals to a market with limited supply. Despite market headwinds and a tricky local tax environment, we successfully achieved many of our original investment goals for this project,” CP Capital’s Jay Remillard said in a statement.

The property, located at 150 East River Road in Des Plaines, was completed in 2020. It was fully leased and 99 percent occupied at the time of sale, according to CP Capital. Rents are $1,548 per month for a studio apartment, $1,970 for a one-bedroom, $2,575 for a two-bedroom and $3,245 for a three-bedroom.

The asset appears to be Coastal Ridge’s first purchase in the Chicagoland market. The firm did not respond to requests for comment.

The Monarch sold for almost $250,000 per unit, exceeding the average per-unit price for multifamily properties that traded in the second quarter of $187,200, according to a July report from Cushman & Wakefield.

Still, other recent apartment complex sales have garnered even higher per-unit prices, showing the willingness of big-name investors to pay top dollar for multifamily assets inside and outside the city.

Asset manager Nuveen’s real estate arm paid almost $306,000 per unit for a 336-unit property in Vernon Hills last month, and, at the high end of the downtown Chicago market, billionaire Zara founder Amancio Ortega’s family office paid about $471,000 per unit for 727 West Madison Street in the city’s priciest apartment trade so far in 2023.

Chicago’s rent growth could be the draw. Rental rates in the metro area have risen 3.6 percent since August 2022, tripling the national average of 1.2 percent and exceeding 20 other major metropolitan areas, according to a report from CoStar.

Coastal Ridge secured a $38.1 million mortgage from Cleveland-based BWE to finance the deal, public records show.