2 Downtown rental towers hit market for about $100M each

South Loop and River North complexes list as demand for apartments picks up

747 North Wabash Avenue and 1407 South Michigan Avenue (Photos via The Bernardin; 1407 on Michigan)
747 North Wabash Avenue and 1407 South Michigan Avenue (Photos via The Bernardin; 1407 on Michigan)

Two big Chicago rental towers have hit the market, each eyeing about $100 million as apartment demand citywide picks back up.

Russland Capital Group is trying to unload the larger of the pair, 1407 on Michigan, a 199-unit building in the South Loop, according to Crain’s. A sale at that price would work out to more than $500,000 per unit at the 15-story complex, at 1407 S. Michigan Avenue.

In River North, UBS Realty Investors has listed the 171-unit building Bernardin, at 747 N. Wabash Ave., Crain’s also reported. The firm paid about $89 million for the 25-story complex in 2005, a year after it was completed.

Both complexes are close to full occupancy, having rebounded from a sharp drop as some renters left for the suburbs or their parents’ houses in the early months of the pandemic. But that has changed. And on the sales side, over 12,000 Chicago-area homes were purchased in April, continuing a nine-month hot streak, according to a recent report.

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Rental properties are also filling up again, and landlords and prospective buyers are taking notice. In late April, the 548-unit Shoreham apartment tower in Lakeshore East hit the market. PNC Realty Investors oversees the Shoreham at 400 E. South Water Street for owner AFL-CIO Building Investment Trust. The asking price was not known, but buildings comparable to the 47-story complex have in recent years sold for up to $500,000 per unit.

And last month, Alex Najem’s Fulton St. Companies proposed 1.1 million square feet of residential and office buildings in Fulton Market. The complex, called Fulton Square, would include 600 rental units and a 500,000-square-foot office building.

[Crain’s] — Alexi Friedman