Howard Street Apartment Tower Listed Less Than 2 Years After Sale

EVANSTON, IL — The owner of a 221-unit apartment tower on Howard Street has put the building on the market less than two years after purchasing the property for $46 million, Crain's Chicago Business reported. The 17-story 415 Premier, at 415 Howard St., is owned by the Dallas-based Crescent Real Estate, which hired commercial real estate firm HFF to sell its property along the Evanston-Chicago border.

The 2008-built building has been sold three times since falling into foreclosure during the Great Recession, Crain's reported. Due to increasing supply of rental property along the North Shore, the median cost of apartments has grown at less than half of the rate of the Chicago suburbs overall — rising by 2.3 percent compared to 4.7 percent over the past two years.

There are nearly 1,000 new apartment units currently planned or being built in Evanston, which has increased the risk of oversupplying the market, according to Crain's.

HFF is marketing the 415 Premier property as an opportunity for new buyers to carry out improvements and charge higher rents, Crain's reported. A brochure for the building, which is located less than a block west of the Howard Street CTA station, indicates it is currently 97 percent leased with average rents of $2.05 per square foot and $1,711 per month.