3L Real Estate Lists Chicago Apartment Tower As Demand Surges

Another downtown Chicago apartment tower is up for grabs, adding to a growing list of landlords looking to cash in on a rental market that keeps defying gravity.

Texas-based 3L Real Estate hired JLL to market Astoria Tower, a 30-story, 248-unit property at 8 East 9th Street in the South Loop, according to a marketing flyer, first reported by Crain’s.

The timing isn’t subtle. Downtown Chicago rents jumped more than 8 percent year over year in the third quarter, the biggest annual increase in three years, according to Integra Realty Resources.

With little new construction in the pipeline and demand holding firm, the supply squeeze is pushing rents higher and coaxing owners to the sales market after several years defined by interest-rate volatility.

3L acquired Astoria Tower in 2022 for $82.5 million, or roughly $333,000 a unit, per CoStar. The building’s backstory mirrors the arc of the last condo cycle: originally delivered as for-sale units in 2009, the tower struggled during the post-crash downturn.

Crescent Heights scooped up 205 condos in 2010, operated them as rentals and began buying out remaining owners in 2019 to execute a full condo deconversion into rental units.

Today Astoria Tower is 97 percent occupied, JLL’s materials show. Brokers David Gaines and Bill Baumann are positioning the property as having value-added potential — the kind of asset investors often chase when rent growth is strong but new inventory is limited. The pitch: refresh the units, modernize amenities and capture even higher rents in a neighborhood where renter demand is resilient.

The building offers studios through three-bedrooms with monthly rents ranging from $1,832 to $4,600.

3L didn’t comment on the listing, but the firm has been an active player in Chicago’s middle-market multifamily sector. Its local holdings include the converted former Ebony and Jet magazine building at 820 South Michigan Avenue and other South Loop and Hyde Park properties. Across its portfolio, 3L said it controls more than 1,700 units, with another 1,000-plus in development.

Astoria’s appearance on the market underscores a broader shift: after years of stalled transaction volume, more downtown owners see an opening. With fundamentals this tight and pricing momentum back, investor interest — at least for well-located, cash-flowing buildings — may have room to climb.

— Eric Weilbacher