FPA Multifamily Lists Massive Chicagoland Apartment Complex

FPA Multifamily is looking to find a buyer for a 758-unit residential complex west of the city, the prolific investor’s latest offering in the Chicago area this year.

The California-based firm listed the ReNew Wheaton Center, a residential complex with six apartment buildings, including a pair of 20-story highrises, CoStar reported. The complex at 1 Wheaton Center in Wheaton is being marketed by JLL’s Kevin Girard, Mark Stern and Zachary Kaufman.

The sale comes as the multifamily investment market faces headwinds due to rising interest rates and slowing sales. However, FPA, led by founder Greg Fowler, is looking to overcome those challenges by offering potential buyers “accretive assumable financing” that would allows buyers to take on the existing loan at a lower interest rate.

The assumable loan structure has become increasingly common in the Chicago real estate market. Recent examples include the $31 million sale of the 78-unit MODE Logan Square Apartments and the $94 million sale of the Haven on Long Grove in Aurora, both of which used assumable interest rates to secure buyers in a difficult market.

FPA has also used this financing approach on the other side of the table. It acquired the 642-unit Reserve at Hoffman Estates in July for just over $102 million, aided by an $80 million assumable loan at a 4.52 percent interest rate.

Terms for the loan at ReNew Wheaton Center have not been disclosed.

FPA purchased the ReNew Wheaton Center, then known as Wheaton Center, for $131 million, or $173,000 per unit, in 2018. Since then, the property, built in 1972, has maintained a 96 percent occupancy rate, with rents increasing by 9 percent on new leases and 5 percent on renewals, according to JLL.

The sale is the latest in a series of high-profile transactions by FPA Multifamily in the Chicago area.

Earlier this year, the firm paid $144 million for a 500-unit tower at 1326 South Michigan Avenue in the South Loop, which stands as the city’s largest residential deal this year. Other notable acquisitions include the 267-unit Seneca tower in Streeterville and the 558-unit Westmont Village in the western suburbs.

— Andrew Terrell