Chicago Cheat Sheet: Museum sells 2 floors to real estate firm…& more

Real estate firm buys 2 floors from museum

The Museum of Broadcast Communications is scaling back, selling two floors of its building in River North. The museum dedicated to local and national broadcasting history is selling the third and fourth floors of the building at 360 North State Street. The buyer is real estate firm Fern Hill. The museum’s space will go from 25,000 square feet to 12,500. The sale will put the museum on stronger financial footing, officials said. The 30-year-old museum moved into the State Street space in 2012. [Chicago Tribune]

Home flipping slowed in city

The number of properties flipped in the Chicago metro area in 2018 fell 9 percent year over year, according to a new report. Some 5,487 properties flipped in the area last year, according to Attom Data Solutions, down from 6,012 the year before. The decline is largely the result of dwindling supply of distressed properties and the rising costs of flipping. [Crain’s]

First Equity wins approval for Mount Prospect apartments

Mount Prospect officials approved a developer’s plan to build a 97-unit apartment building in the suburb’s downtown. The village this week approved First Equity Acquisitions’ plan for the five-story building at Main Street and Central Road. The village will sell the former A&P grocery store site to the developer for $650,000 to make way for the 71-foot building. [Daily Herald]

Cooper at Southbank wraps up final construction

Lendlease wrapped up the final phase of construction at the Cooper at Southbank rental building in the South Loop. The final phase of work on the building at 720 South Wells Street included 26 townhomes, six penthouses and penthouse amenities. The 452-unit building is the first structure in the Southbank complex that Lendlease is developing along the South Branch of the Chicago River. [Connect Media]

Bears coach buys in Lake Bluff

Chicago Bears assistant coach Ted Monachino and his wife, Amy, bought a five-bedroom home in Lake Bluff. The couple paid $1.2 million for the 3,200-square-foot house not far from the Bears’ Halas Hall headquarters in Lake Forest. The sellers of the Monachinos’ new house listed it in January for $1.3 million. Coldwell Banker’s Alissa McNicholas represented the couple in the purchase. [Chicago Tribune]

Essex on the Park opens to tenants

The first tenants of the Essex on the Park apartment high-rise have moved in to the building on the south end of Grant Park. Oxford Capital Group developed the 479-unit building a 808 South Michigan Avenue. It is next door to the rebranded hotel now known as the Hotel Essex. Oxford is still wrapping up the $75 million overhaul of the hotel. [Curbed]