Private equity firm is latest investor to target Fulton Market expansion

Domus Special Situations Group’s latest property acquisition adds it to the growing list of investors looking to the western portion of Fulton Market.

The Chicago-based private equity firm bought the commercial building at 1155 West Fulton Street for $10 million from an anonymous trust, according to Cook County records.

MB Financial Bank financed the deal with a $7 million loan, records show.

A representative of Domus did not immediately return a request for comment.

The company’s website shows a portfolio that includes a number of commercial properties around Chicago. The firm said its investment approach targets apartments, retail, mixed-use and other commercial buildings in the city.

In picking up the Fulton Street property, Domus joins a growing number of investors targeting the areas west of the heart of the booming Fulton Market neighborhood.

Shapack Partners, which helped lead the transformation of Fulton Market, paid $8.5 million in September for a 27,000-square-foot lot at 224 North Ada Street in the largely industrial west half of Fulton Market. The firm followed that up in January by paying $6.5 million for a 1.5-acre warehouse property even farther west at 400 North Noble Street.

Fellow Fulton Market pioneer Sterling Bay also is giving the western portion of the neighborhood some attention, including the recent purchase of several properties including a former waste transfer station at Racine and Carroll avenues.

While the Kinzie Corridor area west of Fulton Market has more restrictive zoning, city planners are looking at whether to open it up to other uses, possibly opening the gates for a full-on westward expansion of Fulton Market-type development.

One portion of the area falls in a designated Opportunity Zone, and experts believe it is likely one of the neighborhoods to benefit most immediately from the new program.