An Oregon-based multifamily investor has paid $94 million for a 223-unit tower near the Kennedy Expressway, just down the street from a Chicago property that it sold less than two years ago.
The Green Cities Company last week bought the 20-story Catalyst tower at 123 N. Desplaines St., according to online property records.
Portland-based Green Cities scooped up that property after selling its 199-unit Emme tower at 165 N. Desplaines in June 2023 to a real estate investment trust sponsored by Hines.
The first major multifamily sale in downtown Chicago in 2025 comes almost two years after the tower’s developers — DWS Group, an affiliate of Deutsche Bank, and local developer Marquette Cos. — first put it on the market for sale.
During that time, the volume of deals throughout the country has been pushed down by factors including high borrowing costs.
The Marquette-led development was completed in 2014 just across the expressway from Fulton Market, in the early days of what now has been a yearslong construction boom adding office, hotel and residential towers throughout the former meatpacking district.
Commercial mortgage-backed securities debt on the property, with a remaining balance of almost $65.2 million, was set to mature July 1, according to CoStar loan information.
"Catalyst was our anchor in the West Loop for more than a decade, and its sale marks another successful investment for Marquette and our partners,” Trevor Ryan, a Marquette partner, said in a statement to CoStar News. “Many of our top property management staff were trained at Catalyst, making the building a cornerstone of our team’s growth. While it’s bittersweet to part ways, this sale enables us to pursue new opportunities while Catalyst embarks on its next chapter.”
DWS and Green Cities did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Catalyst is almost 94% leased, with asking rents of $3,128 per unit and $3.42 per square foot, according to CoStar data.
Green Cities, formerly known as Gerding Edlen, is a longtime developer of apartments in Chicago.
The firm sold two Chicago towers in 2023. Morguard North American Residential REIT paid $81 million for the 240-unit Xavier Apartments tower at 625 W. Division St., and Hines paid $72.6 million for the Emme tower on Desplaines.
For the record
The sellers were represented by CBRE brokers John Jaeger, Justin Puppi, Jason Zyck, Danny Zeboski and Jillian Jaeger.