Waterton has sold a 346-unit complex in Chicago’s South Loop for more than $103 million, a significant increase from the price less than three years ago in a sign of higher values in the city.
An affiliate of Austin, Texas-based RPM Living this week bought the two-tower Grand Central property at 221 W. Harrison St. for $103.5 million, according to online property records.
Chicago-based Waterton put the property on the market for sale last summer, less than two years after buying it, as transaction volume was ramping up and waves of properties were hitting the market. That is far higher than the $81.9 million that Waterton paid for the pair of connected 14-story towers in October 2023.
Interest in Chicago-area multifamily properties has been boosted by rent growth that has continued to outpace most other major U.S. markets. Rent increases have followed limited new construction in recent years.
Over the past year, multifamily sales volume in the Chicago area is $6.3 billion, a 30% increase from the previous year, according to CoStar data. Nationally, the increase has been about 5%.
Other recent purchases
That has led many landlords to put properties on the market, including other examples of recent purchases.
Earlier this month, New York-based Tishman Speyer put a two-tower, 357-unit complex along the southern end of Fulton Market up for sale less than three years after buying it for almost $128 million.
Large sales in the past year include a nearly $175 million deal for the 398-unit multifamily portion of the mixed-use Streeterville tower at 340 E. North Water St., the biggest sale since 2023. In another deal late last year, the Left Bank tower at 300 N. Canal St. sold for $151 million.
This month, the 1,115-unit Pavilion Apartments complex near O’Hare International Airport changed hands for $167 million.
Waterton declined to comment on the South Loop sale. RPM Living did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CoStar News.
Grand Central is RPM Living’s second big purchase in recent months in the Chicago area, following its $102 million deal for the Orland Ridge build-to-rent complex in Orland Park, Illinois, in March.
Waterton took out a $56.75 million loan from Berkeley Point Capital less than a month after buying the Harrison Street property, property records show.
At the time Newmark brokers began marketing it for sale, the property was 95% leased with gross income growth of 8% over the past year, according to a brochure from the brokerage.
For the record
The seller was represented by Newmark brokers Liz Gagliardi, Chuck Johanns, Susan Lawson, Bishop Polizzotto and Marshall Roberts.