Fulton Market Landowner Lists Multifamily Development Site

Tom Comforte is looking to cash out while the cranes are still swinging in Fulton Market.

The West Loop landowner put his site at 1240 West Carroll Avenue on the market, seeking to ride the apartment wave reshaping the corridor’s western edge, Crain’s reported.

Comforte tapped CBRE brokers Tom Svoboda and Dominic Soltero to find a buyer for the parcel, which sits between two development sites owned by Sterling Bay, according to marketing materials. The property could yield up to 123 residential units on its own, or as many as 239 if a buyer also secures two small adjacent lots from Sterling Bay.

The listing comes as apartment developers swarm the former meatpacking district, betting on surging rents and long-term demand despite a tough financing climate.

Comforte, whose family once ran HVAC firm Climatemp out of Fulton Market before decamping to Broadview, has gradually offloaded holdings as the neighborhood evolved from industrial to mixed use hotspot.

Two major projects are already advancing nearby. Sterling Bay is under contract to sell most of the 1200 West block of Carroll to developer Tom Roszak, who plans a 29-story tower with 398 apartments. One block west, Sterling Bay is shopping its site at 1300 West Carroll, where the city signed off last year on a 700-unit proposal.

Roszak told the outlet that Comforte’s land was in play while he pursued his own deal but said the new listing won’t alter his project, which still needs city council approval.

Even with construction loans scarce and interest rates high, Fulton Market’s housing pipeline keeps expanding. Chicago-based LG Group recently filed plans for a five-story, 66-unit building a few blocks south at Kinzie and Racine, underscoring the neighborhood’s resilience.

Comforte hasn’t set an asking price for his Carroll Avenue property, and neither he nor Sterling Bay returned requests for comment. But with residential developers circling and the city’s westward growth showing few signs of slowing, Comforte may find now is the right moment to sell.

— Eric Weilbacher