The 207-unit Wicker Park Connection complex, a pair of apartment buildings perched above a small-format Target on Division Street, is officially for sale. The listing drops another big-ticket multifamily asset into Chicago’s already busy sales pipeline and could set the bar for how much buyers will pay in the neighborhood for newer apartments paired with a national retail anchor.
Property Details
Owners have tapped CBRE to market the buildings at 1640 and 1664 W. Division St., according to CoStar News. The offering wraps about 23,855 square feet of ground-floor retail into the deal, headlined by a 12,613-square-foot Target, along with 207 apartments split between a 61-unit mid-rise and a 146-unit tower. CoStar reports the retail space is fully leased, and brokers are pitching the property to investors looking for rent growth in supply-constrained, high-demand pockets of the city.
Developer And Amenities
Developer materials show the project was delivered in 2018 by a venture led by Arthur Slaven of Centrum Realty & Development and John McLinden of Hubbard Street Group. Hubbard Street Group highlights an amenity lineup that includes a pool deck, fitness center, party room, business center, and outdoor terraces, along with retailers such as Target and Philz Coffee at street level. The two buildings sit just off the busy Division, Ashland, and Milwaukee intersection, a short walk from the Division Blue Line stop.
Market Context
CBRE is bringing the property to market as a play on continued rent growth at a time when the pipeline of new multifamily projects is relatively thin, CoStar News reports. CoStar also notes that Chicago-area property sales climbed about 30 percent year over year, compared with roughly 5 percent nationally, a gap that has investors zeroing in on transit-oriented, stabilized income assets like this one.
Background
The current owners previously floated the complex for sale in 2018 and then refinanced it in 2019 with a 10-year, $64.74 million loan from CBRE Capital Markets, according to Cook County records and reporting by The Real Deal. That financing history and earlier marketing effort give today’s bidders a clear operating track record to underwrite, including stabilized retail income since the project opened.
Deal Team And What To Watch
CBRE’s Chicago multifamily team is representing the sellers, with CBRE identifying John Jaeger, Justin Puppi and Jason Zyck among its lead institutional brokers. Prospective buyers are expected to focus on the strength of the Target lease, neighborhood foot traffic and the easy access to the Division Blue Line when figuring out how high they are willing to bid. One key storyline will be whether the marketing materials lean harder on immediate cash-on-cash returns from fully leased retail or on the prospect of further rent growth in a tight submarket.
CBRE is likely to field tours and offers over the coming weeks. Whoever comes out on top will walk away with a relatively new Wicker Park apartment complex in one of the neighborhood’s most walkable corridors, complete with a nationally recognized retail tenant anchoring the ground floor.
