CHICAGO — SVN Chicago Commercial has negotiated the sale of the former MK restaurant property in Chicago’s River North neighborhood for $2.6 million. The buyer plans to redevelop the 9,600-square-foot building, which is located at 868 N. Franklin St. Marcus Cook of SVN Chicago represented the buyer, while colleagues Wayne Caplan and Michael Elam represented the seller, a Los Angeles-based investment firm.
Walker & Dunlop is finding financial success while helping to provide high-demand, affordable housing in key markets by converting hotel assets into multifamily buildings. Brian Cornell, managing director at Walker & Dunlop Investment Partners (WDIP), says his firm is identifying hotels that are already built out and can accommodate market-rate multifamily use. Extended-stay hotels have the best layout for this type of conversion because their footprint already includes the floor plans and many of the amenities that multifamily residents expect. “The units are typically one-bedroom, but with some two-bedroom suites and studios,” he outlines. “This creates a variety of unit types within the existing physical build-out of the property, and these assets can operate as true multifamily without having to combine walls and do extensive capital renovations.” When it comes to location, Cornell explains, “We prefer infill locations that have strong employment drivers and a dearth of affordable housing.” Underutilized Properties, Multifamily Strategies The three investments Walker & Dunlop has done in the past two years are in the heart of commercial corridors, in areas where there are limited multifamily projects within a two-to-three-mile radius offering rents that can support an 80 percent area median income (AMI) threshold. One is …
CLEVELAND — City Club Apartments has topped off construction of City Club Apartments-Cleveland, a 23-story luxury apartment tower located at 776 Euclid Ave. in Cleveland. The development will include 304 apartment units and penthouses as well as street-level retail space, including a restaurant, basement speakeasy, lobby café, Sky Club café and doggie daycare and spa. Dubbed an “apartment hotel,” the property will offer residents the option to rent a furnished suite or an unfurnished apartment or penthouse. Amenities will include indoor and outdoor theaters, a heated rooftop pool and hot tub, outdoor kitchen, coworking spaces, a bark park, Zen garden, fitness center, yoga studio, wellness room, business center and conference room. Occupancy is slated to begin in October.
CHICAGO — Skender has completed an expansive renovation project at THE MART office building in Chicago. Owner Vornado Realty Trust coined the repositioning initiative as “Evolution of an Icon.” Skender made improvements to four key areas of the building’s second floor: a 29,000-square-foot circulation area, 21,000-square-foot conference center, 23,000-square-foot fitness center and 2,000-square-foot private tenant lounge. In the circulation area, Skender added new Terrazzo flooring and new lounge seating sourced from design showrooms at THE MART. The new conference center is comprised of 15 meeting rooms that accommodate up to 300 people. The area also features a workspace with phone booths, lounge seating, a pantry and satellite service area. The fitness center features a golf simulator, locker rooms, infrared saunas, a cycle room and mind-body room. Overlooking the river is the new tenant-exclusive, speakeasy-inspired lounge with a bar. Gensler was the architect and IMEG Corp. was the engineer.
MERRIAM, KAN. — Brinkmann Constructors has broken ground on Merriam Grand Station Lofts, a 361-unit luxury apartment project in Merriam, a southwest suburb of Kansas City. Drake Development is developing the project on the site of a former retail development that has been vacant for 10 years. The development is part of the larger Merriam Grand Station, a $72.5 million project including retail, residential and public gathering space. Merriam Grand Station Lofts will consist of two buildings with 73,000 square feet of below-grade parking. Amenities will include a pool, pet wash station, game rooms and electric vehicle charging stations. Completion is slated for 2025.
CHICAGO — Interra Realty has brokered the sale of a 16-unit multifamily property in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood for $6.1 million. Located at 2543 N. California Ave., the building was constructed in 1902 and renovated in 2018. There are eight two-bedroom units, five three-bedroom units, one four-bedroom layout and two commercial spaces. Starbucks has been a long-term tenant in one of the commercial spaces. Brad Feldman of Interra represented the seller, Chicago-based Barnett Capital Ltd. Feldman also represented the local private buyer.
SALEM, OHIO — The Cooper Commercial Investment Group has arranged the $2 million sale of Salem Market Place in Salem, a city in Northeast Ohio. Tenants at the 16,252-square-foot property include Super Cuts, Sally Beauty Supply, GameStop, Little Caesar’s, Gadget Lab, Alternative Smokes, Hibachi Express and Drayer Physical Therapy. The center is 83 percent occupied. Dan Cooper and Bob Havasi of Cooper Group represented the seller, a West Coast-based investor. The sales price represented a cap rate of 7.73 percent and approximately 98 percent of the list price.
DETROIT — Flux City Development has broken ground on The Ribbon, an $8.2 million affordable housing community located in Detroit’s East English Village neighborhood. Of the 18 total units, 14 will be reserved for those earning at or below 80 percent of the area median income (AMI), and four of the units will be designated for at or below 60 percent of AMI. Affordability of the apartments is guaranteed for the next 25 years. The project will also feature retail space to be occupied by local favorite Gajiza Dumplings, which will make The Ribbon its first permanent home. Demolition of a former bank building at the project site was recently completed. Completion of The Ribbon is slated for fall 2024. Project partners for The Ribbon include LISC Detroit, a local organization founded in 1990 within the Local Initiatives Support Corporation network, and Invest Detroit, a nonprofit lender, investor and partner. The project received $600,000 in loans from the Detroit Housing for the Future Fund (DHFF) as well as $338,199 in preferred equity from DHFF. The Strategic Neighborhood Fund provided a $1.4 million grant. The development also received $2.2 million from Capital Impact Partners (CIP), a CIP equitable development initiative grant …
INDIANAPOLIS — Milhaus, an Indianapolis-based multifamily developer, owner and operator, has opened a new headquarters in downtown Indianapolis. The 48,000-square-foot building along Washington Street is situated in the historic Cole-Noble neighborhood. Milhaus will operate out of 28,000 square feet on two of the three floors. The building is located next to the firm’s first Qualified Opportunity Zone development, Grid. Housing 175 apartment units, Grid is home to a fraction of the 3,000 units that Milhaus has developed in central Indiana. More than half of those units are located downtown. To date, Milhaus has developed 48 projects with $1.9 billion in assets under management. The firm also maintains regional offices in Kansas City and Austin, Texas, with additional boots on the ground in Florida and Denver.
DRESSER, WIS. — MAG Capital Partners LLC has acquired a four-building industrial property in a sale-leaseback transaction with CORE Industrial Partners. Located at 700 Kelly Ave. in Dresser, a city in Northwest Wisconsin, the property totals 107,660 square feet. The facility will continue to be fully occupied by Cadrex Manufacturing Solutions, a mechanical solutions provider. Cadrex consists of 11 complementary acquisitions that CORE has integrated into a precision manufacturing platform. The property at 700 Kelly Ave. is the longtime home of sheet metal fabricator Tenere Inc., which was acquired by Cadrex in July 2022. JC Asensio, Briggs Goldberg and Andrew Sandquist of Newmark represented CORE.
