Cunat launches $56.2 million DST for McHenry apartments

Cunat launched Cunat Exchange X DST, its 10th Delaware statutory trust, seeking $56.17 million in equity from accredited investors for a 540-unit apartment community it developed in McHenry, Ill., about 50 miles northwest of Chicago.

The trust owns The Residence of Fox Meadows, which Cunat developed and sold to the DST for $135 million. Cunat will retain 5% of the equity, bringing total equity to $59.125 million. The property carries an $84.375 million, 10-year, interest-only, nonrecourse loan fixed at 5.43%, about 63% of the sale price.

For an advisor weighing the offer for an accredited client, the relevant terms are the $100,000 minimum, exposure to a single 540-unit property and the interest-only loan. Cunat’s 5% co-investment sits at the bottom of the 5% to 20% range the firm says it held in its prior DSTs. Because no principal amortizes before the loan matures, the trust’s return depends on property operations and on the value of the asset at refinancing.

The 18-building community sits on about 37 acres at 1840 Aastri Drive and offers one-bedroom, one-bedroom-with-den and two-bedroom floor plans. It was 97.5% occupied as of Nov. 1 and is one of 15 Cunat properties in McHenry County, where the firm is headquartered. U.S. Census Bureau estimates put McHenry’s population up about 6.8% from 2020 to 2025, according to AltsWire. Cushman & Wakefield’s Q2 2026 Chicago Multifamily MarketBeat report put Chicago-area multifamily occupancy at 94.9%, above a 10-year average of 93.8%, and listed McHenry County among the submarkets with the largest year-over-year occupancy gains; recent suburban construction there has concentrated in Will, DuPage and northwest Cook counties, according to the same report.

“We developed The Residence of Fox Meadows and have been involved with it from the beginning,” said Brian Cunat, co-founder and chief executive of Cunat Inc. “McHenry County is our home market, and our underwriting is informed by decades of operating results from our own communities there.” The firm says its nine prior DSTs raised more than $220 million, and that its first, Cunat Exchange I DST, went full cycle in September 2025 with the sale of the trust’s five multifamily properties.

The $59.125 million in equity and the $84.375 million loan total about $143.5 million, roughly $8.5 million more than the $135 million sale price, which suggests the raise also funded capitalized reserves and offering costs.