A venture tied to the family of hedge fund manager Alec Litowitz bought a River North mixed-use building for $10.5 million.
Cook County property records show developers Kaufman Jacobs and Baum Revision sold the four-story building at 400 North Wells Street to an LLC represented by Jasin Alfaro, the real estate manager for the Litowitz family.
Litowitz is the founder and CEO of Evanston-based hedge fund Magnetar Capital. It is the second-largest Chicago area hedge fund behind Ken Griffin’s Citadel, where Litowitz used to work.
Litowitz and his wife, Jennifer Leischner Litowitz, are noted philanthropists. In September, they gave $10 million to Northwestern University’s Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences, according to Crain’s.
Attorney Steven Ginsberg, who handled the transaction, declined comment. Alfaro could not be reached for comment.
Baum Revision and Kaufman Jacobs bought the building, which sits near Vornado Realty Trust’s Merchandise Mart and is home to the Kinzie Chophouse restaurant, for $9.5 million from restaurant owner Susan Frasca in 2016. They had plans to redevelop it in a few years, though Frasca had a lease for the restaurant and other spaces in the building through this year.
The developers had planned to build on the western portion of the property, which is only one story tall.
Baum development recently inked Coyote Logistics to a long-term lease renewal at its Green Exchange complex in Logan Square.