Vista fetches $7M for West Loop retail as property value soars

Hymie Mishan and Sual Sutton cashed out of a West Loop retail play with a solid gain.

Their New York-based firm Vista Property Group sold the ground-floor retail at 901 West Madison Street for nearly $7.4 million to California-based investors Zerah Michael Issakhanian and Melina Khalaj Issakhanian, according to Cook County records. The price comes to almost $457 per square foot.

The deal involved the Issakhanians — who are unknown among Chicago real estate circles — assuming a loan tied to the property with a $5 million balance that matures in August 2028. The buyers paid Vista nearly $2.4 million more on top of the loan assumption for the 16,200-square-foot property on the southwest corner of Madison and Peoria streets, records show.

Vista representatives didn’t return a request for comment, and attempts to reach the Issakhanians weren’t successful.

The Madison Street property is leased to Fedex, Dominos, Club Pilates and HM Day Spa. Greenstone Partners brokered the property sale.

The deal marks a win for Vista, which paid $5.7 million to buy the property in 2017 from a venture of Jake Geleerd, whose former firm Terrapin Properties developed the 10-story, 148-unit condo building on top of the retail, completing the project in 2007. (Terrapin got into a foreclosure fight with a lender on the building in 2012 over units it had bought and was renting out.)

But Vista’s deal marks a rare sale for the firm. It has been a buyer in Chicago as of late, including paying $76 million last year to the John Buck Company for the 245-unit 3Eleven apartment high-rise in River North.

Vista is also developing an office building in the West Loop, at 640 West Randolph Street, after building a 15-story building at 609 West Randolph on spec in a similar design and size to the one planned nearby. The firm has a three-tower, 1,450-unit multifamily development plan in motion to build at 370 North Morgan Street, 400 North Morgan and 401 North Morgan in Fulton Market.

Vista’s other Chicago retail property includes 1438 North Milwaukee Avenue, which is leased to apparel retailer Supreme as the brand’s only U.S. store outside of New York or California.The landlord is also working through an eviction complaint that it filed against Salt Flats Innovation House, a coworking space provider that also offers members high-tech tools like 3D printers, for a Fulton Market property it leased from Vista at 113 North May Street. The case is set for another hearing in July, Cook County court records show.

Correction: A previous version of this post stated the price incorrectly. It was $7.4 million — a $5 million assumed mortgage plus $2.4 million.

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