Monroe Residential Gets $11M for Apartments Near Casino Site

Although Chicago’s first casino won’t open in River West until 2026, some multifamily investors and developers are already betting on the area.

Chicago-based Monroe Residential Partners cashed in on a 36-unit apartment building the firm built at 851 West Grand Avenue in the Fulton River District, as a local private investor bought it for $11 million, or almost $310,000 per unit, according to brokerage Interra Realty.

Monroe paid $1.75 million for the land in 2015, according to Cook County public records. Interra declined to provide the project’s development costs and Monroe did not return a request for comment, though a new construction permit Monroe received in 2016 reported the project’s cost as $6.8 million, according to the city’s permit database.

“There aren’t many multifamily properties quite like this in the neighborhood, and few have sold for such a strong price,” Interra’s Howard Pinkus, who represented Monroe in the sale along with the firm’s David Goss and Jon Morgan, said in a statement.

Yet many more newly built multifamily buildings are set to swarm the Fulton River District and River West areas.

The apartments are located about half a mile southwest of where Bally’s is set to build its casino and entertainment complex, a $1.7 billion project years in the making. The area is also poised to gain four residential towers with as many as 2,000 units over multiple phases with the NOMA development proposed by Jeff Shapack.

“The fact that we entertained multiple offers is emblematic of the demand for high-quality rental properties in key Chicago neighborhoods,” Pinkus of the Grand Avenue property deal.

Interra’s Brad Feldman represented the buyer, who Interra declined to name and isn’t yet identified in public records.

“The buyer closed so quickly on this property due in part to their desire to own in one of Chicago’s hottest neighborhoods,” Feldman said in prepared comments. “Demand will only skyrocket as this area experiences additional development, including the future Bally’s casino only a few blocks away.”