Gold Coast Chicago Apartments Sell for $174,000 per Unit

Two Chicago investors picked up a vintage Gold Coast apartment building for $43 million.

A venture between Jeffrey Malk and Jimmy Oppenheimer paid $43 million for a 247-unit building at 1100 North Dearborn Parkway, in the property’s first sale in more than half a century, Crain’s reported. The price worked out to $174,000 per unit.

The seller — Berger Realty Group, a family-run office led by Erica Berger — has held the building since 1969.

Malk is a principal at CRM Properties Group, which is planning a major mixed-use redevelopment in Lincoln Park. Oppenheimer runs New City Property Management, a Chicago firm overseeing more than 1,000 apartment units. Berger owns the Fine Arts Building on South Michigan and the tower at 40 East Oak Street.

The pre-war, art deco building is near the Clark-Division Red Line stop. The firm marketed the property as a value-add play, with CBRE touting upside potential from modernizing common areas and amenities to drive rents. CBRE’s John Jaeger, Justin Puppi and Jason Zyck brokered the deal.

The sale adds to a quiet but steady wave of vintage multifamily turnover in the city’s tonier neighborhoods, a trend driven less by speculation than by the fundamentals of aging assets, limited competition and well-capitalized local players with long horizons.

A slow development pipeline has kept investors hungry for multifamily properties in core Chicago neighborhoods. Just 150 units are expected to deliver in downtown this year, marking the slowest pace of new supply in nearly 30 years, according to Integra Realty Resources.

As high interest rates weigh on valuations across asset classes, apartments stand out as a favored target for local buyers, particularly older buildings with renovation potential. The Gold Coast has seen several such trades in recent months, including Chestnut Place, which sold for $85.2 million in October, and a 68-unit tower at 1211 North LaSalle that changed hands for $21 million in a lender-directed sale in May.

— Judah Duke