New York investor wants to cash out on condo-to-apartment converted building

A New York investor wants to cash out on a condo-to-apartment building on Chicago’s Near North Side.

ESG Kullen is aiming to sell the Oliver on LaSalle Apartments, a 250-unit building at 1140 North LaSalle Drive, three years after the deconversion, Crain’s reported. Kiser Group, which was hired by ESG, expects the property to fetch bids in the $50 million range.

ESG bought the building for $38 million in 2018, and spent millions of dollars fixing it up,
Kiser’s Andy Friedman told Crain’s. Built in 1924 as a hotel, it was used as apartments until 2006, when it became condos. ESG renovated the building by adding new elevators and a roof deck.

A wave of condo deconversions has hit the city since 2015. Deconversions can be difficult because at least 85 percent of the owners must approve a bulk sale of the property under an ordinance passed by the Chicago City Council three years ago. After turning condos into apartments, investors either collect rent or sell.

New York’s Greenstone Property Group sold a deconverted 188-unit lakefront building at 5815 North Sheridan Road for $43 million in September, marking one of the largest condo-to-apartment conversion sales.

ESG owns another deconverted building in Gold Coast. After buying a building at 1400 North DuSable Lake Shore Drive for $107 million in December 2019, it flipped it into an apartment, the biggest deconversion at the time.

[Crain’s] – Connie Kim