Highlands Vista Group Pays $31 Million for First Chicago buy

Highlands Vista Group has entered the Chicagoland market with the acquisition of a 198-unit apartment complex in Gurnee.

The Denver-based investment firm paid $31.1 million to buy the Luna Park Apartments, at 1800 Wedgewood Drive, Crain’s reported, citing Lake County property records. Laramar Group, which has offices in Chicago and Denver, was the seller, and the price comes to $157,000 per unit.

Highlands Vista financed the acquisition with a 10-year, $23.5 million Fannie Mae loan arranged by commercial real estate firm Walker & Dunlop. With a portfolio spanning 38 properties in the South and Midwest, Principal Greg Litvak sees the Chicago market as a strategic addition to its growing multifamily investments.

Built in the 1980s, the Luna Park Apartments draw average monthly rents of $1,480 for one-bedroom units and $1,652 for two-bedroom units. Laramar acquired the property through a condo deconversion in 2019, turning owner-occupied condos into rentals.

Chicago’s suburban rental market has become a focal point for investors because of rising rents, growing demand and occupancy rates hovering around 98 percent. Of Chicago’s various suburban markets, the Waukegan-Gurnee submarket has been particularly underdeveloped, having added just 1,716 rental units since 1996.

The median rent in Chicago’s suburbs was $2.08 per square foot in the third quarter, up nearly 4 percent year over year, according to Integra Realty Resources. Rents averaged $3.61 per square foot in the third quarter for Class A apartments in downtown Chicago neighborhoods, a 2.3 percent increase from the same period in last year.

—Andrew Terrell