A 76-unit apartment building near downtown Arlington Heights has changed hands for $25 million, with multifamily investor William Covaci acquiring the five-story property through an operated entity. The building, known as FourNorth Apartments, sits at 4 North Hickory Road and was sold by its original developer, Benchmark Developers.
The deal works out to roughly $329,000 per unit, according to Illinois property records cited by The Real Deal, which first reported the sale. The outlet also reported that FourNorth was delivered in 2024 and was 95 percent occupied at the time of the transaction. JLL represented the seller in the deal, and the brokerage has said FourNorth is one of only two multifamily properties built in suburban Arlington Heights over the prior five years, per the same report.
FourNorth offers studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom floorplans, with building amenities that include a fitness center, rooftop terrace, pet-friendly policies and an onsite management office, according to the report. Benchmark's own project page for the development lists a more granular breakdown: 8 studio units, 45 one-bedroom units and 23 two-bedroom units, averaging 796 square feet per unit overall. Benchmark Developers also describes the property as including 80 indoor parking spaces, 32 outdoor spaces and 3,816 square feet of commercial retail space, along with a private gym, meeting room, roof terrace with common grills and guest parking.
A Project Stalled by the Pandemic
FourNorth's path to completion was not smooth. Benchmark bought the site in 2019 for $2.1 million from a trust listed as H&H Enterprises, according to the seed reporting, and the project won construction approval in 2020. But as Bisnow reported, a volatile real estate market, rising interest rates and the onset of the coronavirus pandemic halted the building process before it eventually moved forward. Development was financed in part with a $13 million construction loan from Hinsdale Bank & Trust.
Covaci's purchase was financed with a $19.2 million loan from Knighthead Funding, according to the reporting. The building sits less than half a mile from downtown Arlington Heights and the Metra commuter rail station, Bisnow reported, placing it within reach of the village's downtown core, major employers and Metra's Union Pacific Northwest Line. The village of Arlington Heights had also negotiated a redevelopment agreement with the developer to help fund public improvements in the area, including construction of a new street, per Bisnow's reporting.
Part of a Broader Suburban Buying Spree
The FourNorth sale lands amid a wider surge in suburban Chicago multifamily investment. Suburban deal volume rose more than 67 percent year over year in the first two quarters of 2026, according to Interra Realty data cited in a separate Real Deal report, which noted that investors have been flocking to the low-supply market in hopes of benefiting from record rent growth. The same report tallied a recent streak of suburban deals totaling $335 million, including Axiom Properties' $46 million sale of the Westmore apartment building in Lombard to Schaumburg-based Finch & Barry, and Morningside Group's $91.3 million sale of the 192-unit Elmhurst 255 apartments to an unidentified buyer.
Another deal reported as in progress involves Albion Residential potentially selling the 268-unit Albion Evanston Apartments to Chicago-based Draper & Kramer for roughly $126 million, though representatives of Albion declined to confirm the transaction, according to the report. Separately, Bisnow has reported that the first phase of the Arlington Gateway Redevelopment is planned to include 301 luxury rental apartments and about 25,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space, signaling continued investment appetite in the village beyond the FourNorth deal.
FourNorth represents an asset that is already performing in the Chicago housing market, the seed reporting noted, at a time when Chicago rents have climbed in recent months even as the region's multifamily development pipeline remains thin. High borrowing costs and rising construction costs have also been cited as factors shaping the broader Chicago multifamily market. Those conditions appear to be part of what is drawing capital toward completed, leased-up suburban properties like FourNorth rather than new ground-up construction.
Property ownership records for transactions like the FourNorth sale are maintained publicly; the Cook County Clerk's Office notes that recorded land records can be searched by address, parcel identification number, grantor, grantee or other indexed details for residents who want to review the paperwork themselves.
