Antheus Capital Buys South Loop Multifamily for $59M

Chicago-based Draper & Kramer appears to have found a repeat customer for its Chicago multifamily developments.

Antheus Capital, a New Jersey-based investment group led by Eli Ungar, purchased yet another Chicago project from the developer, this time a 24-Story, 275-Unit apartment building in the South Loop for $59 million in a deal that closed earlier this month. Antheus paid about $218,000 per unit.

Draper & Kramer looks to have taken a bit of a hit with the sale, as it financed apartment complex with a $69 million construction loan, marking a slight loss for the company with the sale. Multiple large apartment complex sales in Chicago this year resulted in losses in property value for their sellers, as surging interest rates limit the ability of buyers to pay higher prices.

In the second-largest multifamily sale in Chicago this year, seller Invesco suffered a bigger financial blow when it traded the 398-unit property at 340 E. North Water St., to Miami-based Crescent Heights for $173 million, down 28 percent from the $240 million that Invesco paid for the asset in 2016.

Antheus also operates Mac Properties, the company’s property management arm, which has multifamily properties in Chicago, Kansas City, and St. Louis. Draper & Kramer, Antheus and Mac did not immediately return requests for comment.

Ungar looks to have financed the purchase with a nearly $33 million mortgage on the property from CBRE Capital Markets, according to Cook County records.

In March, Draper hired CBRE to market Aspire, which opened in 2020. At the time the property was listed, it had about a 95 percent occupancy rate with a monthly rent average of $2,707, according to a previous report.

This isn’t the first time Draper has sold one of its apartment properties to Antheus. In May, Antheus bought Bronzeville’s Lake Meadows apartments from the company for $161 million. The 1,869-unit complex was the largest single multifamily property to sell in the Chicago area in over 15 years, according to prior reporting.

Mac Properties has generally been focused in the Hyde Park neighborhood. The company came under fire during the pandemic, when it asked residents who were behind on rent to sign non-disclosure agreements before it would discuss payment plans.

The company was also one of very few in the city of Chicago that continued to pursue evictions during the pandemic, despite the fact that even Cook County Sheriff’s Office even stopped serving eviction orders starting in mid-March 2020.