A London-based firm that recently announced plans to invest in multifamily properties throughout the United States is zeroing in on its first big deal in Chicago.
U.K. financial services firm Legal & General has an agreement to buy the 350-unit Arkadia West Loop apartment tower at 765 W. Adams St., according to people familiar with the deal. The transaction has not been completed and still could fall apart.
Work to complete the deal comes after Legal & General, which has an office in Chicago’s Loop, last month said it was taking an equity stake in Boston-based Taurus Investment Holdings to help meet demand from its investors. As part of the strategic partnership, Legal & General said it will invest as much as $200 million with Taurus to seed multifamily acquisitions across the country through a value-add fund.
It's unclear whether the Chicago deal is part of that arrangement or is a separate deal for Legal & General, which said the partnership was part of a broader vision to develop “full-scale U.S. real estate investment management capability” in response to demand from its investors.
It’s also unclear how much Legal & General is paying for the 35-story tower in Chicago, which is along the northern edge of Greektown, just south of Fulton Market.
New Jersey-based PGIM hired Newmark brokers to sell the tower in June. PGIM developed the tower with Chicago-based White Oak Realty Partners, completing it in 2015. The local development partner said in June that PGIM has since bought out its ownership stake.
PGIM and Taurus did not respond to requests for comment from CoStar News. Legal & General declined to comment.
The pending sale of the Chicago tower along the Kennedy Expressway comes late in a year in which many large apartment towers in Chicago and other cities have sold at a big discount to previous prices, and in some cases for less than they cost to build, because of factors including high borrowing costs and an overall sluggish real estate investment sales market.
That has created deals for opportunistic buyers.
In one nearby example, former Blackstone real estate executive John Schreiber and local firm JDL Development bought the 227-unit Parker Fulton Market tower for $93.3 million in September. That was well below the nearly $111.4 million that it last sold for in 2017.
For the record
The seller is represented by Newmark brokers Liz Gagliardi, Chuck Johanns, Susan Lawson, Joe Raucci and Bishop Polizzotto.