Newmark’s Midwest multifamily investment sales team rode a serious hot streak in 2025, closing nine apartment transactions across the Chicago area with a combined value of $689.3 million. The run was driven by two heavyweight deals, a roughly $175 million Streeterville tower and an $88.5 million Oak Park property, which together made up a large share of the year’s tally. Led by brokers Liz Gagliardi, Chuck Johanns, and Susan Lawson, the team showed that well-located rental buildings could still pull in buyers even as capital markets stayed volatile.
According to Connect CRE, the group’s nine Chicago area deals totaled $689.3 million and produced an average transaction size north of $76 million. Those numbers helped earn the brokers a spot on Connect CRE’s Chicago & Midwest Top Broker list for 2026. The outlet highlighted the North Water Apartments and Eleven33 sales as the signature trades in a year when capitalization rate expectations were shifting quickly, and financing conditions kept tightening.
Streeterville tower sets the pace
The headline transaction was the North Water Apartments, the 398-unit multifamily portion of the tower at 340 East North Water Street, which sold for about $174.7 million in late 2025. As reported by The Real Deal, an FPA Multifamily venture acquired the property, while Newmark marketed it on behalf of Crescent Heights. The price marked one of the year’s largest Chicago multifamily benchmarks and signaled that investors were still willing to pay up for downtown, amenity-rich assets.
Oak Park sale stands out in the suburbs
Out in Oak Park, the Eleven33 apartments delivered one of the suburbs’ splashiest moments. The 263 unit building traded for $88.5 million, a level that industry trackers say was the largest single multifamily sale in Oak Park during the past five years. Cushman & Wakefield’s Q4 2025 Chicago MarketBeat notes the deal and identifies Draper & Kramer as the buyer, with Newmark representing the seller. The suburban trade added significant volume to Newmark’s annual haul and showed that buyers were not just chasing downtown towers.
What it means for investors
Regional research suggests these closings were not one offs. In 2025, Chicago’s multifamily dealmaking picked up as new deliveries slowed and demand strengthened in several key submarkets. Northmarq reports tighter vacancy in downtown neighborhoods and higher pricing for top tier properties, dynamics that likely helped support the year’s big ticket trades. For owners and capital providers, the activity hints that well positioned assets can still attract competitive offers, even as underwriting becomes more selective.
Newmark’s platform and the brokers’ experience were central to stitching these deals together. The firm’s people pages detail the team’s Midwest multifamily track record and the institutional relationships that help widen the buyer pool for large assets; see Newmark for bios and sample transactions. With lending conditions and interest rates still in flux, brokers who can run broad marketing campaigns and surface assumable financing options are likely to stay busy in Chicago’s apartment market.
