CHICAGO — Chicago-based real estate development firms Golub & Co. and Farpoint Development have acquired Prairie Shores, a large-scale workforce housing apartment community in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood. The purchase price was not disclosed, but Crain’s Chicago Business reported earlier this year that the buyers were slated to pay $180 million for the property. The Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group was the largest equity investor in the acquisition.
The 20-acre Prairie Shores campus, located between 26th and 31st streets on Martin Luther King Drive, includes five 19-story buildings totaling 1,675 units. Originally developed between 1957 and 1961, the buildings include several fitness centers and resident lounges.
“Prairie Shores has been a mainstay in the Bronzeville neighborhood since the late 1950s, and we plan to build on its solid reputation while continuing to serve the hard-working families and individuals who currently live there,” says Michael Newman, principal, president and CEO of Golub.
The community is part of a Near South Side section of the city that is flourishing from new development and destinations such as the Wintrust Arena, Historic Motor Row and McCormick Place, according to the buyers.
Collin McKenna and Michael Goldman of Golub and Rami Peltz and Eric Helfand of Farpoint negotiated the transaction. Kevin Girard, Wick Kirby and Marty O’Connell of JLL and Sean Fogarty, now with Artisan Capital Group, represented the seller, Draper & Kramer. Stephen Skok, Matthew Schoenfeldt and Christopher Knight of JLL worked on behalf of the new ownership to place an acquisition loan with ACORE Capital.
Golub and its affiliates have owned, leased or managed more than 50 million square feet of commercial, mixed-use and multifamily real estate properties valued in excess of $10 billion. Farpoint has developed several Chicago office and mixed-use projects totaling more than 5 million square feet and valued in excess of $1 billion. The company is currently developing the former Michael Reese Hospital site, which neighbors Prairie Shores, into Bronzeville Lakefront, a 100-acre mixed-use project.
The Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group makes investments and loans that benefit underserved communities in the United States through its comprehensive community development platform. Since its inception, the division has committed more than $8 billion, facilitating the creation and preservation of 36,000 housing units.
— Kristin Hiller