Mavrek Development Secures Massive Multifamily Refinancing

One of the latest examples of lenders warming back up to Chicago’s multifamily market is playing out in Streeterville, where a joint venture led by Mavrek Development landed a nine-figure refinancing for its newest apartment tower.

The group scored a $106.3 million loan from Canyon Partners Real Estate to refinance the Saint Grand, a 21-story, 248-unit building completed last year at 535 North St. Clair Street, Crain’s reported. The loan amounts to $428,600 per unit.

The debt replaces a $102 million construction loan taken out in 2022, and Mavrek’s Chief Investment Officer Anthony Hrusovsky said the updated terms include a significantly better interest rate.

JLL brokered the loan. Canyon, the real estate arm of alternative investment firm Canyon Partners, has invested nearly $8 billion across almost 300 transactions nationally.

The deal aligns with a string of recent refinancing wins across Chicago’s apartment sector.

With the Saint Grand, landlords have collectively secured more than $250 million in debt over the past few months, with lenders showing new confidence in the city’s fundamentals despite elevated interest rates and political uncertainty. Life insurance firms, banks and debt funds have all jumped in as compressed supply and rent growth in the urban core offer a hedge against national volatility.

Saint Grand’s 97 percent occupancy and near-full lease-up of its 47,000 square feet of ground-floor retail helped it stand out. Tenants include Club Studio Fitness, Wintrust Bank and Tropical Smoothie Cafe. Hrusovsky said the project attracted “name-brand” lenders and characterized the process as competitive, a sharp contrast from conditions just a year ago.

Downtown Chicago is on track to deliver fewer rental units this year than in any year since the 1990s, according to Integra Realty Resources. That shortage is helping drive rent growth, with median net rents rising over 6 percent year-over-year in the first quarter.

The Saint Grand was the first apartment tower completed in Streeterville since before the pandemic.

Mavrek’s Hrusovsky said the tower’s timing and performance reflect a broader trend: “Rent growth is some of the best in the country, and I don’t think that’s going to change anytime soon.”

— Judah Duke