Seattle company buys Uptown retail center from Keeler RE

A Seattle company bought an Uptown retail center for $16 million from Keeler Real Estate.

Cook County records show the buyer of the Montrose Commons at 918 West Montrose Avenue to be Draper Machine Works of Seattle.

Draper could not be reached for comment.

It recently sold a Seattle marina to the Port of Seattle for $15.7 million, according to a report last month in The Registry of Puget Sound Real Estate, a local trade publication there. It was unclear whether Draper used this provision, but the IRS allows a seller of real estate to defer capital gains taxes on any deal if the seller quickly buys another property of similar value.

The two-story Uptown property has ground-floor parking and is anchored by a 26,000-square-foot Ross Dress for Less shop.

Keeler bought the property, then home to Dearborn Wholesale Grocers, in March 2014 for $2.9 million, according to Real Capital Analytics. He then built the new retail center using an April 2016 construction loan of $10 million from Talmer Bank and Trust.

The property is just a block from JDL’s 27-story Eight Eleven Uptown apartment complex at 811 West Montrose Avenue, part of a boomlet in residential development in the neighborhood.

Elsewhere, CRG is bringing a 12-story apartment building to the intersection of Wilson Avenue and Sheridan Road and Cedar Street plans a three-building project that will bring 700 apartments and retail to the 5000 block of North Broadway.

Farpoint Development, meanwhile, is leading a $75 million project aimed at restoring the venerable Uptown Theatre to some of its former glory.