Rockwell Partners Lands $80M Loan for Chicago Property

Ellyn Crossing. Image courtesy of Walker & Dunlop

Rockwell Partners has received $80.1 million in financing for its suburban Chicago project that took five years of converting from condos back into apartments.

Walker & Dunlop arranged the Freddie Mac floating rate loan for Rockwell, a repeat client of the real estate finance company, and the 1,155-unit Ellyn Crossing in Glendale Heights, Ill. The loan offers maximum flexibility through an attractive index rate, two years of interest-only payments and a flexible prepayment schedule.

Located at 440 Gregory Ave., Ellyn Crossing is roughly 30 miles away from downtown Chicago. The suburban community offers one- and two-bedroom units throughout 30 three-story buildings. The units range in size from 579 to 681 square feet and have open floorplans, patios or balconies and spacious closets. The property’s amenities include a resident clubhouse, business center, activity room, fitness center, pool and sundeck, tennis court, sand volleyball court, playground and picnic areas. The property is 86.9 percent occupied, according to Yardi Matrix data.

Rockwell has already invested millions into renovating the community, including $4.5 million into unit upgrades and $1.5 million in common area renovations to Class B standards. Rockwell is expected to complete all unit renovations within six to nine months of closing.

MAJOR CONDO DECONVERSION

Before Rockwell took over ownership at Ellyn Crossing, the community was formerly known as the Stonegate community. The homes were built in phases between 1973 and 1978 and had been partially converted into condos during the U.S. housing bubble.

Rockwell got involved with the project in 2013 when it acquired more than 400 units of Stonegate. The investment firm continued to acquire the remainder of the units over the next five years before tying all the units together under the Ellyn Crossing brand. The overall effort was one of the largest condo deconversions in the country, according to Rockwell.

Pat Dempsey, senior managing director at Walker & Dunlop, said in prepared remarks that Rockwell renovated a complicated broken condo project into a quality, garden-style apartment community for those looking to live outside urban Chicago.

While not on the same scale as Stonegate, many other deconversions have been taking place in Chicago’s submarkets. In July, Interra Realty brokered the $17 million deconversion sale of a 91-unit residential building in Evanston, Ill. A couple months prior, CBRE arranged the $44 million condo deconversion sale of a 163-unit property in Chicago.