Amid an otherwise thriving buying spree in the Chicago area, FPA Multifamily sold a suburban property for a small profit.
San Francisco-based FPA, led by Greg Fowler, sold Arrive at Town Center, an 85-unit apartment complex with 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space in the northern suburb of Vernon Hills, to Kurt Bender’s Chicago-based Bender Companies.
Bender paid $11 million for the property at 1255 Town Center Road in Vernon Hills and assumed FPA’s $16.8 million Fannie Mae loan, which matures in 2029. The total investment was nearly $28 million, or about $327,000 per unit, not including retail space.
When FPA purchased the property in 2018, the company invested $8.5 million in the purchase and also took out a $16 million loan, bringing the total investment to approximately $24.5 million.
Bender said his company is considering renaming the complex and making some improvements to the property, which includes one-, two- and three-bedroom units with an average floor area of 1,200 square feet.
Kevin Girard, Zach Kaufman and Bill Baumann of JLL represented Bender Companies in the transaction.
The sale was an anomaly for FPA, which has been growing its multifamily portfolio in Chicago and the surrounding area.
In March, an FPA affiliate paid $144 million for the 500-unit Paragon Chicago Tower in the South Loop, 1326 South Michigan Avenue, for a total consideration of about $288,000 per unit.
And last month, the company paid $60 million for the 270-unit Emerson Apartments in Oak Park and $102 million, or about $159,000 per unit, for the 642-unit Reserve at Hoffman Estates.
Rounding out the recent buying spree was FPA’s purchase of the 270-unit Vantage at Oak Park, which closed on July 31. Information on the sale price has not yet been publicly documented.
FPA and Bender are making moves in a multifamily market that has shown promising signs despite a challenging interest rate environment. As Chicago emerged as the leading market for rent growth in the U.S. throughout 2023 and 2024, new investors came to the table with offers alongside long-standing multifamily market players. However, the end results were not always in favor of sellers, as stubborn interest rates eroded their profit margins.
An August analysis by The only true The study found that about half of the high-end apartment complexes sold in the first half of this year resulted in a profit for the sellers. Four sales resulted in a loss for the seller and four sales had an unknown outcome because sales prices or credit information had not yet been recorded.
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