Free Market Ventures paid $10.6 million for an Evanston office building it plans to renovate and modernize.
The Chicago-based real estate investment firm picked up the five-story office complex at 820 Davis Street in Evanston, according to Marcus & Millichap, which brokered the deal.
Marcus & Millichap didn’t disclose the seller, but records show it was owned by Charles Happ of Winnetka-based Happ Management. The building was one of three Happ properties targeted in a $8.5-million foreclosure suit in 2011, Crain’s reported at the time.
The 76,000-square-foot office building is one block from the CTA Purple Line stop and the Metra train station in downtown Evanston. It was built in 1975, according to LoopNet.
The vacancy rate in the Evanston office market is less than 10 percent, better than 12.6 percent vacancy rate in Downtown Chicago at the end of 2018. Office rents have been “skyrocketing” in Evanston, real estate experts have said.
Late last year, toy tycoon Randy Rissman bought an office building on Davis Street in Evanston for $32.4 million.
With a planned renovation, Free Market Ventures’ new Evanston property will be well positioned to take advantage of the market, Marcus & Millichap’s Stephen Lieberman said in a statement.
“The office market in Evanston is extremely stable, particularly in the central business district, where 820 Davis is located,” he said.
Free Market Ventures invests in residential and commercial real estate in the Chicago area. The firm is currently looking to develop a 193-unit apartment tower in the West Loop.
Lieberman marketed the property and procured the buyer in the 820 Davis sale.