A $164,230-per-unit trade sets a Chicago value-add multifamily benchmark

For the first time in nearly 50 years, an Edgewater apartment building has sold. The property at 1433 W. Ardmore Ave. went for $2.135 million in a deal brokered by Interra Realty. At $164,230 per unit, the price is a useful marker for value-add investors on Chicago's North Side.

The building dates to 1927. It sits less than a mile from Kathy Osterman Beach, near the shops and restaurants along Clark Street. There are 13 units. Ten are one-bedrooms. The other three are two-bedrooms. The building is less than half occupied.

The buyer, an undisclosed local investor, plans a full gut rehab that reconfigures existing units and adds new ones. Interra associate Tommy Richard represented the buyer. Interra director Joe Braun represented the private seller.

Richard said the sale is 'a good example of the enduring demand we're seeing for value-add opportunities in Chicago, particularly those assets where an extensive repositioning can unlock additional value,' as Connect CRE reported.

The buyer paid $164,230 per unit for vacancy and deferred work, not the current rent roll. With occupancy below half, a gut rehab can reset rents across the whole building, and the added units expand the rentable square footage. The location, a short walk from the beach and Clark Street retail, gives the renovated product a clear lease-up path. The buyer is betting that a renovated unit will rent for far more than the old layouts do today. If the renovation does not expand the income base, the math does not work.

The sale closes a long chapter. The building had not traded in roughly half a century, so the previous owner never had to decide whether to fund a major renovation against an aging rent roll. Now that choice belongs to the new owner. For investors tracking Chicago's north-side apartment market, the deal is a clean reference point: what a well-located 1927 walk-up is worth when the renovation is the whole business plan.