On October 20th, Dwelle—a joint venture between Drew Breneman’s firm RiseInvest and Sam Meyer—acquired 1247-1249 W. Madison Street in Chicago. The asset traded for $32,800,000 or $420,513 per unit.
The property is fully leased and consists of 72 luxury apartment units, six commercial units and a heated parking garage with 1:1 parking. Each unit is appointed with high-end finishes including granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, bamboo floors, spacious floor plans and in-unit washer/dryers. Units on the top floor have spectacular views of the Chicago skyline and private rooftop access.
“It’s a COVID-19 era deal. The going-in cap rate is higher than anything we’ve come across in years of comparable size and quality. We like the price per pound we are getting here too. Our purchase price is 20 percent below the per-unit and per-foot price that the Monroe Aberdeen apartment building sold around the corner for in March 2020,” said Breneman, Dwelle’s managing principal. “Nearly all of the properties we have looked at to purchase this year have traded with seemingly little to no discount relative to pre-COVID pricing. After looking at and bidding on countless deals, we finally feel like this was our discounted shot.”
Dwelle plans to implement strategies to push the income similar to the JV’s other buildings including running the leasing in house, implementing utility packages, optimizing rent pricing and re-evaluate every cost and process with fresh energy. Dwelle invests capital from high-net-worth investors who are looking to own real estate long term and generate dividend income that exceeds other asset types in an extremely tax-efficient manner.
“Apartments are ideal for this type of investor since they don’t have nearly the volatility in cash flows that are found in other product types like retail, office or industrial which incur heavy leasing costs as tenants turn over which can disrupt those dividend payments,” said Meyer, managing principal. “Especially at a time where COVID-19 is impacting everything, an apartment building leased to individuals who have not had their incomes disrupted by COVID-19 is particularly attractive.”
