$159M Chicago Apartment Complex Picked Up by RP Holdings

November 16, 2011
By Nicholas Ziegler, News Editor

In a big Midwest move, RP Holdings L.L.C. just ponied up $159 million for a two-tower, 1,031-unit multi-housing property in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. Famous for being the home of both the University of Chicago and Barack Obama, Hyde Park isn’t a spot in the city overflowing with luxury apartment complexes, making the purchase a good investment for RP.

The seller was an unnamed member of the Crescent Heights group of companies. Holliday Fenoglio Fowler L.P. marketed the property on behalf of the sellers.

The property includes 7,591 feet of ground-floor retail space in addition to its studio, one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom units. The average unit size is 979 square feet.

Chicago’s outlook for the remainder of 2011 and into 2012 appears to be strong, according to a third-quarter report by services firm Marcus & Millichap. Total employment across the city increased by 0.3 percent for the first half of the year as employers added 10,800 positions to their rolls – up strongly from the 1,500 jobs created in the previous six-month period.

The Chicago market, according to Commercial Property Executive’s sister publication, Multi-Housing News, is one driven by demand – making it extremely landlord-centric currently. ”You have zero growth in the number of apartments in downtown Chicago between 1990 and 2010 and that was really a function of apartment conversions,” Curt Bailey, president of Related Midwest, told MHN. “The lack of apartment development was driven by desires among Chicagoans to own real estate. It’s been a really buyer-centric market, so there’s very, very limited product out there.”