Waterton Spends $90M on Fulton Market Multifamily in Chicago

Waterton has tightened its grip on Chicago’s rental housing market, shelling out nearly $90 million for a Fulton Market apartment tower while weighing the sale of another downtown property.

The multifamily investment firm paid $89.5 million, or $340,300 per apartment, for The Mason, a 263-unit building at 180 North Ada Street, according to property records. The 14-story tower opened in 2019 and was developed by Naperville-based Marquette Cos. and Deutsche Bank affiliate DWS Group, which put it up for sale in April, CoStar reported.

Casey Mog, the firm’s vice president of acquisitions, said the firm leapt at the opportunity to add a property in the West Loop back into their portfolio, following the $35 million sale of the 81-unit property at 20 North Aberdeen Street to JAB Real Estate, which notched a 13 percent discount from the property’s previous value with the deal.

The acquisition pulls one of Fulton Market’s most prominent listings off the market in a neighborhood that has seen some of the city’s priciest multifamily deals. Earlier this year, a New York investor paid $170 million for the 375-unit Fulbrix tower on Elizabeth Street, less than a block away.

Waterton’s move comes as the firm could just as easily be a seller. In August, it listed the 346-unit Grand Central apartments in the South Loop, less than two years after buying the property for $81.9 million. The dual strategy follows the 2023 close of its $1.73 billion value-add fund, one of the largest of its kind in the country.

Marquette and DWS had financed the property with a $54.7 million Wells Fargo loan in 2022. The partnership sold another downtown asset, the 223-unit Catalyst tower, for $94 million earlier this year. They didn’t disclose what they had hoped to fetch for The Mason. CBRE’s John Jaeger, Justin Puppi, Jason Zyck and Danny Zeboski, along with Eastdil Secured’s Kenneth Glomb and Bryan Rosenberg, marketed the sale.

The Mason’s amenities include a rooftop lounge, co-working areas, fitness club and a pool deck with cabanas and fire pits. Waterton said it will make light upgrades to units, common areas and amenities.

— Eric Weilbacher