Cheers, Chicago.
At a time when cities throughout the country are hungover from higher interest rates, entities with boozy-sounding names backed by the Italian family that controls global spirits giant Campari Group are quietly pouring millions of dollars into Chicago real estate.
Deals backed by the billionaire Garavoglia family include the purchase, and more recent financing, of the Time Out Market building in the fast-growing Fulton Market district.
That was the third property bought through limited liability companies that until recently provided few clues about the identity of an investor that has now spent almost $106 million on retail and office properties in the city since June 2022. The family's involvement is now known because of loan documents related to the properties.
All three of the Garavoglia family’s LLCs that were used to make the Chicago deals through holding company Lagfin are named for cocktails made with Campari products: Bizzy Izzy LLC, Brown Derby LLC and Grand 75 LLC.
Luxembourg-based Lagfin, the firm managing the Garavoglia family’s investments, is the controlling shareholder of Campari Group. The spirits company’s well-known brands include the Campari and Aperol aperitifs, Skyy vodka and Wild Turkey bourbon whiskey.
One-off LLCs are typically used by investors in publicly filed real estate documents when they close on a deal. LLCs often are simply named for a property’s address, but other investors take a more playful approach.
Foreign investments are a positive sign amid a slowdown in commercial real estate sales throughout the country, an easing of demand that includes more than a year passing since the last sale of a big downtown office tower.
Different Buyers
Financing challenges and economic worries have sent many big institutional investors to the sidelines since around the middle of 2022, causing many sellers to look to wealthy individuals and families — some of them from outside the country.
In another recent deal involving a European consumer-brand billionaire, the real estate investment firm of Spain’s Amancio Ortega, the founder of the Zara clothing retailer, paid more than $231 million for the 492-unit apartment tower at 727 W. Madison St. along the edge of Fulton Market.
It is the highest price paid this year for a Chicago multifamily building.
In the most recent acquisition by Italy’s Garavoglia family, their firm paid $35.75 million for the Time Out Market food hall building in April, according to Cook County property records. That was bought through the Bizzy Izzy LLC, named for a cocktail made from ingredients including Wild Turkey.
CoStar News reported before the deal was completed that a European planned to buy the three-story building at 914-926 W. Fulton, but the buyer’s identity was unknown at the time.
The identity emerged when the buyer in August took out a $19.34 million loan from Northern Trust, according to Cook County property records that also list Lagfin as the loan’s guarantor and mention siblings Luca, Campari’s chairman, and Alessandra Garavoglia, one of its directors, as principals in the property.
On the same day Lagfin took out that loan, it borrowed another $10.16 million from Northern Trust for its Chicago boutique office building at 217 N. Jefferson St. a few blocks east of the Time Out building. Lagfin bought that building for $20.95 million in July 2022 without taking out a loan at the time, according to county records. Its involvement in that six-story building also has never previously been reported.
That building was bought and later financed under the name Grand 75 LLC, referencing a drink made with orange-flavored French liqueur Grand Marnier, another Campari holding.
Wild Turkey
In another deal never publicly connected to the Italian family, they paid $40.5 million for the leased lower floors of an office tower at 79 W. Monroe St. in the Loop business district in June 2022 before later paying $8.75 million for vacant upper floors, according to property records. Crain’s Chicago Business reported in November that the European buyer, which it did not identify, was expected to convert upper floors to apartments.
Both 79 W. Monroe acquisitions were made by Brown Derby LLC, named for another Wild Turkey-based drink. Lagfin has yet to take out debt on that historic, 14-story tower, according to county records.
The Bizzy Izzy, Brown Derby and Grand 75 LLCs all are 100% owned by Lagfin, according to the company’s website. All three are managed by Paul Xuereb of New York-based Tri-Star Equities, according to company documents.
Campari and Xuereb did not respond to emailed requests to comment from CoStar News.
The siblings who control Campari Group inherited shares from their parents, Domenico and Rosa Anna Magno Garavoglia. The shares are traded on the Milan Stock Exchange.
The company was founded in Milan in 1860, the year Gaspare Campari came up with the bright-red aperitif. Campari Group has been controlled in recent decades by the Garavoglia family after Domenico inherited control from the last remaining Campari family heir.
During decades at the company, Domenico went from protecting the original “red passion” recipe to eventually rising to run the company until his death in 1992. His wife died in 2016.