It’s all quiet on the waterfront.
William McEssy and his wife Lois notched the third-biggest home sale ever in the ritzy Lake Geneva area on a $20 million off-market deal with buyers from Chicago’s western suburbs. The agents involved, among other local luxury dealmakers, discussed why the priciest homes are increasingly being sold without ever being formally listed.
Chicagoland’s multifamily market is also gaining steam with rent growth rates that are nearly leading the nation, and a stream of large listings have hit the market.
Capital markets that had been cautious of Chicago are also shaking loose, with big apartment complexes leading the way. The development team behind the Big Deahl project just off the Chicago River’s North Branch in Lincoln Park pulled in a $135 million refinancing from securitized debt specialist Rialto Capital.
Under Mayor Brandon Johnson, Chicago’s real estate trade groups have laid out a blueprint for grappling with a progressive mayor. Their counterparts in New York may want to study the approach, as the industry reels from socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the Democratic primary.
After multiple broken deals, the price of a Wacker Drive skyscraper some developers have contemplated tearing down dropped so low that Great Neck retail magnate Mike Kohan couldn’t help himself from dipping into the office market. Kohan’s firm closed on 311 South Wacker for $45 million, with $20 million in financing from Hakimian Capital.
In a major shakeup of Chicago’s residential brokerage scene, Baird & Warner is buying Yuval Degani’s locally based firm Dream Town Real Estate. The acquisition marks the oldest Chicago-based residential brokerage’s response to Compass buying the region’s largest brokerage @properties for $444 million earlier this year.
Back in Lincoln Park, prominent Chicago trader and real estate investor Don Wilson sold the Getaway Hostel property at 616 West Arlington Place at a discount from its last purchase price to Validus Capital. Wilson’s firm Convexity Properties kept a stake in the property through the deal, which coincides with the hostel that has operated nearly three decades announcing it will close next month.