Two suburban Chicago apartment complexes just changed hands for a combined $78 million, with a Wirtz Corporation joint venture parting ways with a newly built Glen Ellyn property and a McHenry firm buying back a complex it developed decades earlier. Holladay Properties and Wirtz Corporation sold the freshly completed Glenwood Station apartments in Glen Ellyn for $42 million, while Cunat Incorporated repurchased the 208-unit Fawn Ridge Apartments in McHenry for $36 million. The back-to-back deals landed as sales activity across Chicago's suburban apartment market accelerates to levels not seen in years.
According to The Real Deal, the Holladay Properties and Wirtz Corporation venture sold Glenwood Station, located at 464 Glenwood Avenue, to Banner Real Estate Group after completing the project in 2025. The joint venture had bought the DuPage County development site for $3.5 million back in 2022 and financed construction with a $26 million loan from Hinsdale Bank & Trust. Wirtz Corporation, which oversees a portfolio of more than 80 residential properties, is led by Danny Wirtz.
Banner Real Estate Group is a family-owned operating firm based in Northbrook that manages and develops multifamily and self-storage properties across the Midwest and Sun Belt, according to Banner Real Estate Group's own description of its business. The firm was already active in the area, having separately purchased the 94-unit Quincy Station Apartments in nearby Westmont for $37 million from Holladay Properties, the report notes.
Fawn Ridge Returns To Its Original McHenry Owner
The Fawn Ridge Apartments, at 1941 North Orleans Street in McHenry, followed a more circular path. Cunat Incorporated, which had owned the 208-unit complex since 2006, sold it to Woodlake Properties in 2019 for $20.2 million, with Woodlake financing that purchase through a $19.8 million Fannie Mae loan arranged by JLL. This time around, Cunat bought it back for $36 million, or roughly $173,000 per unit.
Cunat Incorporated is a family-owned real estate development and property management firm headquartered in McHenry that was founded in 1976, according to Cunat Incorporated. The company had carried a $16 million Berkadia mortgage against Fawn Ridge and financed its repurchase with a $28.6 million loan from BlackRock's lending arm. Patrick Kennelly noted that debt markets have grown more predictable, with more debt now available for larger institutional deals, per the same reporting.
Suburban Sales Volume Hits Levels Unseen Since 2012
The two deals arrive amid a broader surge in suburban Chicagoland apartment trading. Suburban multifamily sales volume climbed 67 percent year over year, according to Interra, with sales between $1 million and $50 million growing from $448 million in the first half of 2025 to $750 million in the first half of 2026. Cook County accounted for about 57 percent of Chicagoland multifamily sales in the first half of 2026, per the same data, while DuPage County made up 22 percent.
Part of the surge traces back to a supply squeeze. Chicagoland apartment construction deliveries are projected to fall below 4,000 units in 2026, the lowest annual supply expansion for the metro area since 2012, keeping regional vacancy constrained near 3.8 to 5.0 percent, as reported by REJournals. That scarcity has helped push rents higher even as Sun Belt markets struggle with oversupply.
A mid-2026 national report by Marcus & Millichap ranked Chicago among the top major U.S. metro areas for year-over-year apartment rent growth, outperforming Sun Belt markets weighed down by heavy supply overhangs, according to GlobeSt. That mix of scarce new supply and resilient rents has made existing suburban properties more attractive to buyers than ground-up construction.
Wirtz Family Recycles Suburban Capital Into Billion-Dollar Megaprojects
The Glenwood Station sale fits a pattern for the Wirtz family, which has been trimming stabilized suburban and secondary holdings this year. Last week, the family sold its apartment tower at 422-424 West Melrose Street in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood to Aris and Mexhit Sulejmani for $34 million, according to Hoodline's earlier reporting on that transaction.
The family's most ambitious project is the $7 billion, 55-acre 1901 Project surrounding the United Center, which the Wirtz and Reinsdorf families broke ground on in June, kicking off a $500 million first phase that includes a 6,000-seat music hall, a hotel, and parking facilities, according to WTTW News. The family is also pursuing the $2 billion Ivanhoe Village development on 800 acres of ancestral farmland it has held in Mundelein since the 1850s, a Traditional Neighborhood Development that could add more than 3,100 residential units over a 25-year buildout, per the Daily Herald. That Mundelein plan prompted Illinois lawmakers to clarify municipal authority to negotiate developer impact fees for local school districts in 2025, the paper also reported.
A Broader Wave Of Suburban Institutional Buying
The Glenwood Station and Fawn Ridge deals join a string of suburban Chicago apartment sales Hoodline has tracked in recent months. The Ohio Public Employees Retirement System acquired the 212-unit Fynn tower in downtown Elmhurst for $85 million in May, as detailed in Hoodline's report on the Elmhurst tower sale.
Private equity firm Eastham Capital purchased the 168-unit Flats at Gladstone in Glendale Heights for $24 million, or about $143,000 per unit, in March, following a $76 million acquisition in Hoffman Estates the previous year, Hoodline's Glendale Heights coverage noted. Chicago-based Artisan Capital Group acquired the 200-unit Arrowhead Apartments in Palatine for $31.4 million in January using HUD-insured financing, aiming to preserve affordable housing stock while upgrading units, according to Hoodline's Palatine deal report.
Not far from Fawn Ridge, the 288-unit Authentix McHenry complex sold to the Solomon Organization for $55.3 million, per the same reporting on this week's transactions. Even as the Wirtz family redirects capital toward its billion-dollar megaprojects, the pace of suburban dealmaking suggests the family isn't retreating from Chicagoland real estate so much as reshuffling where its money is working.
