JRK Pays $67.3M for Gold Coast Tower Deconverted From Condos

JRK Property Holdings paid $67.3 million for the 196-unit apartment tower at 1250 North LaSalle Street in the Gold Coast, a building converted from condos, according to Bisnow Chicago, citing CoStar News. The company bought the tower from Strategic Properties of North America, which paid $60 million for it in 2019. Newmark’s Elizabeth Gagliardi, Susan Lawson and Chuck Johanns represented the seller.

The deal adds to a string of Chicago condo-to-rental deconversions that have reshaped parts of the Gold Coast and Near North Side over the past decade, as owners buy up individual condo units, convert the building back to a single rental asset, and sell it as stabilized multifamily once leased up. Illinois law requires 75% of unit owners to approve a deconversion; Chicago’s own threshold is 85%, a higher bar that has slowed the pace of new deconversions citywide even as completed ones like this one keep trading.

JRK is a Los Angeles-based multifamily investor with a national apartment portfolio spanning dozens of markets, and the LaSalle Street purchase extends its footprint into one of Chicago’s denser North Side rental submarkets. Strategic Properties of North America, the seller, had held the tower for roughly six years after its own 2019 purchase, long enough to complete the deconversion process and stabilize the building’s rent roll before marketing it for sale.

Why it matters

A seven-figure gain over a six-year hold on a deconverted Gold Coast tower is a data point for multifamily investors and brokers tracking whether Chicago’s deconversion trade still pencils after a run of these deals earlier in the decade. It also signals continued institutional appetite for stabilized North Side apartment assets even as office towers a few blocks away struggle to refinance.

The numbers

JRK’s $67.3 million purchase price is $7.3 million above Strategic Properties’ $60 million basis from 2019, a gain across the 196-unit building over roughly six years of ownership.

What’s next

Watch whether JRK, a Los Angeles-based multifamily investor active in several U.S. markets, adds to its Chicago footprint. More Gold Coast and Near North multifamily coverage at Chicago.