Chicago Student Housing Property Trades Hands for $58.5M

2 E. Eighth St., a 330-unit student housing property in downtown Chicago, has been sold for $58.5 million. The 28-story, 882-bed high rise is closest to Columbia College and Roosevelt University, but also houses students from other nearby schools.

By Dees Stribling, Contributing Editor

Chicago—2 E. Eighth St., a 330-unit student housing property in downtown Chicago, has been sold for $58.5 million. The 28-story, 882-bed high rise is closest to Columbia College and Roosevelt University, but also houses students from other nearby schools.

The buyer was a joint venture partnership between Chicago-based Marc Real Residential, New York-based Atlas Real Estate Partners and Angelo, Gordon and Co., and Philadelphia-based Equus Capital Partners Ltd., a private equity real estate fund manager, sold the property, which a predecessor entity, BPG, acquired in 2003.

At the time of the BPG acquisition 10 years ago, the property was a conventional, market-rate apartment community. The company undertook to convert it to student housing, per its strategy of pursuing value-add properties. More recently, according to Equus vice president Greg Curci, the company executed a master lease for 60 percent of the beds with Columbia College, which “resulted in strong investor interest” in the property.

The master lease will run four years. Rents at the property range from $700 to $100. The buyer plans to spend an unspecified amount of money to refurbish the property, including new flooring and appliances.

The property includes 20,000 square feet of first-floor retail and a four-story parking garage. At the time of sale, 2 E. Eighth St. was 96 percent leased. The seller was represented by Chris Bancroft and Chris Epp of ARA Student Housing Group and Susan Lawson and Todd Stofflet of ARA Chicago.

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