Chicago condo owners sell Lakeview building for $15M

New owner SRE Holdings plans to convert the 58 units into rental apartments

519 West Melrose Street in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood (Credit: Redfin)
519 West Melrose Street in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood (Credit: Redfin)

SRE Holdings recently closed on a nearly $15 million condo deconversion deal in Lakeview.

The local property manager paid $14.9 million for the 58-unit building, known as Metro on Melrose, at 519 West Melrose Street. CBRE brokers Sam Haddadin and Justin Ross represented the condo association in the sale.

SRE paid about $257,000 per apartment.

The building was constructed in 1967 and converted to condos in 2006, when most of the owners bought their units from the original developer. After the collapse of the housing market a few years later, many of the owners who wanted to move out of the building chose to become unintentional landlords rather than sell their condos at a loss, according to Ed Hayes, treasurer of Metro on Melrose’s condo association.

In the first and only vote, 82 percent of owners voted in favor of the deal at the end of September, just a couple weeks before the city’s deconversion requirement increased from 75 percent to 85 percent of owners needed to approve a bulk sale in mid-October.

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Other condo deconversions in the city have been announced in recent months, but those votes appear to have taken place before the requirement was upped.

New York multifamily investment firm ESG Kullen closed on a $107 million deal for a 391-unit building at 1400 North Lake Shore Drive at the end of 2019, but the vote took place the previous year. It marked the most expensive condo deconversion in Chicago history, surpassing the $90.5 million sale of the 449-unit River City complex, which previously held the title.

Condo deconversions have also continued in the suburbs, where the statewide requirement of 75 percent still stands.

New York-based investment firm CLK Properties recently paid $94 million for the 924-unit Heritage Village Pointe in Des Plaines, marking the Chicago area’s largest condo deconversion by unit count.

Two condo buildings in Oak Park, one with 56 units and the other with 26 units, recently sold for a combined $12.4 million.