After buying a high-profile tower on the Magnificent Mile, a Chicago multifamily developer has scooped up a 132-unit building in a high-demand area of the city’s North Side.
Chicago-based Cedar Street on Friday told CoStar News that it has bought the seven-story building at 1980 N. Milwaukee Ave. for $34.6 million.
The Bucktown property is along the high-traffic intersection of Milwaukee and Armitage avenues.
Earlier this year, Cedar Street paid $122 million for the 289-unit Millie on Michigan, the residential portion of the 47-story tower at 300 N. Michigan Ave.
That deal with joint-venture partner Kayne Anderson Real Estate included 25,000 square feet of retail space. The property was later financed with a loan of just over $91 million from Invesco Real Estate.
“We’re bullish on Chicago,” Cedar Street CEO Will Murphy said. “For cash-flow multifamily, it’s one of the highest-yielding markets in the country.”
The deals add to Cedar Street’s portfolio in its home city. The firm has developed and bought more than 10,000 residential units throughout the country, often with ground-up developments.
But with challenges such as high borrowing and construction costs, some developers have shifted to buying existing buildings, often for less than it cost to build them.
In Chicago, there has been an uptick in transactions after a major slowdown in development in recent years. Uncertainty over property taxes has narrowed the pool of buyers, even as other market conditions are improving, Murphy said.
“The lack of liquidity is resulting in attractive buying opportunities that are some of the best in the country, and it’s also resulting in a lack of supply that leaves Chicago second only to San Francisco in rent growth and occupancy,” Murphy said.
The lure of growing rents has pushed Chicago-area sales volume to its highest level since 2022, according to CoStar data.
In one large recent deal, Amli Residential paid $134.5 million for the 275-unit Milieu tower in the West Loop.
The Bucktown property previously was known as AM 1980, but Cedar Street is rebranding it as The Weyland.
The seller was CRG, the development arm of construction firm Clayco, which built the project.
CRG declined to comment to CoStar News.
Completed in 2018, the property includes 6,245 square feet of retail and amenities such as a fitness center, dog run and rooftop deck with skyline views. It was 95% occupied at the time of the sale, according to Cedar Street.
CRG bought the site for $4.9 million in 2017 and took out a $23.5 million construction loan from Principal Life Insurance, according to Cook County property records. A Principal affiliate later provided $24 million in permanent debt in a 2021 refinancing.
The maturity of that debt has been extended twice, most recently to April 2026, according to property records.