Standard’s Jaeger and Alter Pay $46M for Landmark Apartments

A landmark apartment complex trade in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood made a late entry onto the list of the city’s biggest affordable housing sales of the year

Jeff Jaeger and Scott Alter’s Standard Communities paid $46 million for the two-building, 371-unit Bryn Mawr Belle Shore Apartments at 5550 North Kenmore Avenue and 1062 West Bryn Mawr Avenue in Edgewater, Crain’s reported. The seller was Highland Park-based Eagle Management, which acquired the property in 2020.

The acquisition marks Standard’s second in the Chicago affordable housing market in the last several months. In September, the firm put $43 million into buying the 148-unit Lake Park Crescent complex at 1061 East 41st Place in the Oakland neighborhood and agreed to put another $11 million into renovating the apartments.

A number of other large affordable housing apartment complexes have sold to out-of-state investors with preservation in mind throughout the city this year, including nearby Standard’s newly bought Oakland property in other South Side neighborhoods. In the largest such deal, that involves many units considered naturally affordable to low- and middle-income renters without government covenants and funding behind the properties, upstate New York-based Emerald Empire bought Chicago-based Pangea Properties local portfolio of about 7,500 apartments mostly on the South and West sides for about $600 million.

Other investors from outside Illinois, such as a joint venture of New York-based L+M Development Partners and Baltimore’s SAA|EVI, have been drawn to affordable Chicago apartments. That venture bought a 297-unit Section 8 complex on the South Side that will receive a total overhaul as part of a $100 million commitment from the firms when they bought the property this month.

Another firm, Jason Bordainick’s New York-based affordable housing investment outfit Hudson Valley Property Group, bought a 144-unit portfolio in the Kenwood and Bronzeville neighborhoods for $28 million last month, while the New York-based Jonathon Rose Cos. bought a 272-unit Near West Side complex that for $18 million earlier this year.

With Standard’s latest deal, the firm, which has offices in New York and Los Angeles, now owns almost 1,900 apartments in Illinois.

Ralph DePasquale and Jack Maloney of Chicago commercial real estate brokerage Berkadia represented Eagle in negotiating the deal.

The buildings opened as apartment hotels in the 1920s and were redeveloped in the 1990s. Apartments in the buildings are set aside for low- and moderate-income residents through agreements with government housing agencies.