FPA buys another Oak Park apartment tower as Chicagoland multifamily market heats up

Greg Fowler’s multifamily firm has solidified its place as Chicagoland’s biggest buyer so far this year.

His San Francisco-based FPA Multifamily just purchased an apartment tower at 150 Forest Avenue in Oak Park, the suburb’s tallest tower with 21 stories. The property previously notched one of the Chicago suburbs’ priciest ever sales in 2018, and just traded hands again as the seller, a joint venture of Goldman Sachs and Chicago-based Magnolia Capital, ended their tenure with the property.

Although the sale price isn’t yet public for the 270-unit building formerly known as Vantage Oak Park — FPA has rebranded it to ReNew Oak Park — the deal indicates transactions are picking up in the Chicago-area multifamily market. The price was likely lower than the $381,000 per unit paid by Goldman and Magnolia in 2018, as interest rate hikes have cut into property values. FPA also bought the Emerson Apartments in Oak Park this summer for $220,000 per unit.

When FPA’s newest Oak Park property was listed for sale, CoStar reported it was expected to sell for around $90 million. If that were the case, the sale price would be lower than its last transaction but more than the $66 million debt balance left on a CMBS loan tied to the building.

The ReNew Oak Park apartment’s website has been rebranded with Trinity Property Consultants, an affiliate of FPA, listed as the property manager. Neither representatives of the Goldman-Magnolia venture nor FPA returned requests for comment.

FPA has been on a buying spree in Chicagoland this year. In March, an affiliate of the California-based investor paid $144 million for the 500-unit Paragon Chicago tower in the South Loop, at 1326 South Michigan Avenue. The total penned out to about $288,000 per unit.

Also in July, the firm paid $60 million for the 270-unit Emerson Apartments in Oak Park and $102 million, or about $159,000 per unit, for the 642-unit for the Reserve at Hoffman Estates. 

CBRE’s John Jaeger, Justin Puppi, Jason Zyck and Danny Zebowski represented the sellers in the ReNew Oak Park sale.

“Oak Park is a strong submarket with supply constraints and excellent rent growth,” Jaeger said in a post on LinkedIn.

Although rates are higher than in recent years, as they begin to fall more buyers and sellers are testing Chicago’s multifamily market. A recent analysis from The Real Deal found that about half of the high-profile apartment complexes that have sold in the first half of the year, traded at a profit for the sellers. Four sales resulted in a loss for the seller, and four had unknown results due to still-unrecorded sale prices or loan information.

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