Building that houses popular Wicker Park restaurant Smoke Daddy is sold

Store Capital REIT sold the property; the restaurant maintains a long-term lease

The Smoke Daddy (Credit: Facebook)
The Smoke Daddy (Credit: Facebook)

The real estate investment trust Store Capital sold the building that’s home to popular Wicker Park barbecue eatery Smoke Daddy.

The buyer was not yet identified in public records but a source said it is a California-based LLC that acquired the building at 1804 West Division Street in a so-called 1031 exchange.

The purchase price was $5.1 million, according to RE Journals.

A 1031 exchange refers to part of the tax code that allows anyone who sells a property to defer capital gains taxes on the deal by quickly buying another property of similar value.

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Ryan Smeele, Jordan Shtulman and Jonathan Wolfe brokered the deal for Stream Capital Partners, a national net lease and sale-leaseback advisory group.

Smeele said Smoke Daddy has a long-term lease in place and the buyer could add value in the future by updating the building’s residential units.

A few blocks away, RDG Funds bought a three-story mixed-use building and adjacent one-story building 1616-1628 North Damen Avenue. RDG has plans to renovate the larger building and raze the smaller one, replacing it with a three-story structure with ground-floor retail.

Last month, the city issued a building permit to the developer of a 99-key Wicker Park hotel at 1555 North Ashland Avenue. [RE Journals] — John O’Brien