Orion59 And Quincy Station Sold to New Owners

Two suburban Chicago apartment properties sold for a combined $80 million last week to separate buyers as the region’s multifamily hot streak continues.

Taken together, they underscore the rising confidence of buyers from both out of state and local shops as a depressed development pipeline gives landlords the ability to raise rents at close to nation-leading rates across the Chicago area.

In the larger of the two transactions, Summit, New Jersey-based Solomon Organization bought The Orion59 Apartments from Manhattan Beach, California-based Orion Residential for $43 million, public records show.

The sale of the sprawling 224-unit, multi-building complex built in 1971 came out to about $191,000 per unit, likely marking a win for Orion. The company led by Marc Venegas and Mark Limpert first bought the apartments in 2018 for $26 million.

Orion originally bought the Naperville apartments at 30W041 Flamenco Court in a portfolio purchase of over 1,700 units across the Chicago suburbs from Dallas-based Lone Star Funds.

In November, Marquette Companies bought another apartment complex in the same Orion portfolio. Naperville-based Marquette bought the 198-unit Arlington Lakes Apartments for $46 million, which came out to just over $232,000 per unit.

The other two Chicagoland properties in Orion’s portfolio haven’t yet sold. They are Orion Parkview, a 512-unit property at 1821 W. Golf Road in Mount Prospect and Orion Prospect, a 783-unit complex at 475 W. Enterprise Drive in Mount Prospect. The portfolio was originally listed in 2022.

Meanwhile, over in Westmont, developer Holladay Properties offloaded The Quincy Station Apartments in a $37 million sale to Banner Real Estate Group, according to public records.

Though it’s unclear how much the South Bend, Indiana-based developer poured into the development in total, the company took out a $22.5 million construction mortgage from Hinsdale Bank & Trust to fund the project in 2020 and refinanced the property upon completion for $27 million with a mortgage from Old National Bank, records show.

Chicago-based Banner Real Estate Group bought the 94-unit Quincy Station apartments at 1 Quincy Street in Westmont for roughly $393,000 per unit but the presence of ground floor retail spaces skews per-unit cost estimates.

The two suburban apartment sales come as more than 1,700 multifamily units in the Chicago suburbs traded in the last few weeks.

Those sales were:

Osso Capital’s $110 million sale of the 730-unit Woodland of Crest Hill Apartments in Crest Hill to Bayshore Capital Partners.
Mark Manda’s $51 million sale of the 378-unit Wheeling property formerly known as VIP Apartments to FPA Multifamily, which rebranded the property to ReNew Lake Arlington.
The Hispanic Housing Development Corporation’s $31.4 million sale of the 200-unit Arrowhead Apartments in Arlington Heights to Artisan Capital Group.
Ameritus’ sale of the 248-unit Fox Pointe Apartments in Aurora to Palatine Capital Partners for $40.1 million.
local investor Daniel Kotcher’s sale of 226-unit Carriage Creek Apartments in Richton Park to Bender Companies for $11.9 million.

Though sales activity in the city of Chicago has been slower, developers still recently notched a win with a sale of 73 East Lake Street.

M&R Development, which completed the building in 2014 in partnership with UBS Realty Investment, sold the 42-story, 322-unit apartment tower in the Loop to a joint venture of Magellan and Intercontinental Real Estate for $126 million.

The sale was the biggest multifamily transaction in the Chicago region so far this year.

The area’s multifamily market has been performing well because of a historic low supply of new units hitting the market and the region’s strong fundamentals like its job market and room for rent growth. Some investors prefer the outer suburbs, however, due to their more predictable property tax environments.

The issue has drawn attention to Cook County’s Property Tax Assessor’s race, which is heating up ahead of a contentious Democratic Primary next month.