SF investor buys suburban Chicago apartment complex for $38M

San Francisco landlord Robert Imhoff bought a suburban Chicago apartment complex, adding to a wave of investment in multifamily complexes as higher borrowing costs and rising prices keep ownership out of the hands of many renters.

Imhoff, operating as Lansing Riverwood LLC paid $37.7 million for Riverwood Apartments in Lansing, Cook County property records show. Bayshore Properties bought the 354-unit complex at 3649 173rd Court for $23 million in 2015 and secured $26 million in refinancing three years later.

Monthly rents run from $1,093 for a one-bedroom to $1,472 for a three-bedroom.

Northwest Indiana-based Bayshore now owns five suburban Chicago apartment complexes, most recently paying $50 million for a 344-unit property in Mount Prospect.

Imhoff has drawn criticism in San Francisco since the 1970s for issues including substandard housing, evictions and rent hikes. He didn’t return a voicemail left at his office.

Lansing Riverwod LLC has its principal office in San Francisco and was organized in October 2021, according to records from the Illinois Secretary of State’s office that list Imhoff as a manager. The corporation has a Springfield-based agent as of May 13, records show.

Imhoff isn’t the only out-of-state investor involved in the action in suburban Chicago’s multifamily market in recent months, attracted by high cap rates, a measure of rental income compared with purchase price, relative to the rest of the nation. San Francisco’s FPA Multifamily sold a 662-unit apartment building in Rolling Meadows to an entity based in Brooklyn for $111 million in April.

Still, investment activity in and around the Windy City is being outpaced by Sunbelt markets. Some Chicago investors are finding more growth potential as well as rents that have risen more quickly and more consistently than in their hometown in places like Phoenix and Salt Lake City.

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