Interra Realty brokered the $3.84 million sale of a four-building, 27-unit portfolio that includes assets on Chicago’s far Northwest Side and in the nearby suburb of Harwood Heights, Illinois. The price equated to $142,370 per unit, the highest to date per CoStar for the submarket, which is less than 10 miles from O’Hare International Airport.
Interra senior managing partner, Joe Smazal, and director, Colin O’Malley, represented the seller, Chicago-based Steel City Management. Interra managing partner, Patrick Kennelly, and director, Paul Waterloo, represented the confidential buyer.
The properties included 4904, 4916 and 4932 N. Harlem Avenue, each offering 6,000 square feet and located in the same block in Harwood Heights, as well as 3025 N. Harlem Avenue, a 6,450-square-foot building located less than three miles south in Chicago’s Montclare neighborhood. The buildings are all three stories and include a mix of one- and two-bedroom apartments, which were 100 percent occupied at the time of sale.
“These recently modernized apartments have been very well-received in this submarket,” said Waterloo. “As a market-leading product—with higher interior finish levels than standard for the area—and with full occupancy, they reflect the strong appetite for stabilized buildings in this location, offering the buyer immediate economies of scale.”
Steel City had purchased and fully renovated the properties over several years, upgrading all plumbing, HVAC and electrical, adding new doors and windows and modernizing all bathrooms and kitchens with new quartz countertops, cabinetry and appliances.
“Our goal is always to transform dated properties into fresh, modern apartments that will appeal to today’s renters,” said Brett P. Holmes, managing partner of Steel City Management. “With this particular portfolio of properties, we identified a neighborhood where there was demand, but not a lot of competition, for apartments of the finish level we typically achieve through our renovation process. We quickly found that local residents were happy to pay our marginally higher rents for a better living experience. Those market dynamics make this a smart investment for the new owners.”
In addition to O’Hare, the properties offer proximity to CTA and Metra rail stations; the No. 90 bus, which services Harlem Avenue and several expressways. Nearby shopping and entertainment destinations include Harlem-Irving Plaza, Fashion Outlets of Chicago, the Parkway Bank Park at Rosemont entertainment district, Rosemont Theatre and Allstate Arena.
