Rumors have swirled for months that NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo will be dealt by the Milwaukee Bucks.
Off the court, the two-time league most valuable player already has been racking up trades of a different variety: real estate.
Affiliates of Ante, the player’s family office, in the past few months have invested more than $69 million acquiring a combined 186 apartment units, according to CoStar data and public records.
The properties are in Wisconsin, Brooklyn and, most recently, on the North Side of Chicago.
With the recent push into real estate, the Antetokounmpo family — including Giannis brother and Bucks teammate Thanasis — is diversifying its immense wealth.
It’s unclear whether the family plans to continue expanding its real estate empire beyond the recent deals. Ante did not respond to requests for comment from CoStar News.
In the most recent real estate deal, an Ante affiliate paid just over $21 million for a four-story, 56-unit building at 4513 N. Clark St. in Chicago. The property, known as Harmony Apartments, was completed by a group of local investors in 2024.
The building is about 85 miles south of the Bucks’ home arena, Fiserv Forum, and a few miles north of Chicago’s Greektown.
Essex Realty Group, which brokered the sale, announced the deal in a statement earlier this month. At the time, Ante’s involvement in the deal was not publicly known.
Recently posted property records online show the deal was completed Jan. 7, backed by an $11 million loan from Old National Bank.
The ground-floor retail space will be occupied by the Black Ensemble Theater as part of a broader project meant to establish a new arts and cultural hub in the Uptown neighborhood, according to Essex.
Other investments by Ante have included ownership stakes in Major League Baseball’s Milwaukee Brewers and Major League Soccer’s Nashville SC, and an investment in online candy seller Candy Funhouse, according to statements on the firm’s website.
Because of his difficult-to-spell name, Greek upbringing and freakish athleticism, he often is referred to simply as the Greek Freak.
Antetokounmpo led the Bucks to a league championship in 2021, but the relationship between the player and the basketball organization has soured more recently, with Antetokounmpo. There is widespread speculation that he will be traded during this season or after the season ends in the spring.
Deal sparks trade rumors
Although the multifamily purchases appear to be part of a consistent real estate investment strategy of similar-sized properties built within the past decade, the investments at times have helped fuel already rampant trade rumors.
In November, the family office paid almost $25.2 million for neighboring buildings in the Prospect Lefforts Garden neighborhood of Brooklyn. Completed in 2018 and 2019 and known collectively as The Lawrence, the structures at 111 Clarkson St. and 520 Parkside Ave. have a combined 50 units.
When details of that deal became public, it led to speculation that Antetokounmpo would be traded to the New York Knicks, one of the teams frequently mentioned in trade rumors.
In the first of two recent purchases in Wisconsin, Ante in October paid $11.75 million for a 39-unit building at 2420 E. Capital Drive in Shorewood that is known as The Atwater. That building, completed in 2023, was sold by the development firm of Pat Connaughton, a former Bucks teammate.
In November, the Antetokounmpo family spent another $11.6 million for a 41-unit building at 1121 S. Park St. in Madison. Completed in 2021, that property is known as The Emerson.
For the record
The recent sale in Chicago was brokered by Jordan Gottlieb and Rick Ofman of Essex Realty Group.