M&R Breaks Ground on $82M Apartment Tower

CHICAGO-M&R Development will break ground this week on a 221-unit apartment building at 469 W. Huron. The 21-story Parc Huron is slated for completion in mid-2010, and is expected to cost around $81.8 million to construct. M&R acquired the land and plans for the building late last month for about $8.3 million from Miami-based Lennar Corp., which had marketed the tower as condominiums but never begun work on the site.

“We feel it’s a really strong location, and we like the fact that this was all already approved through the city,” Anthony Rossi Sr., managing member of M&R, tells GlobeSt.com. “The plans were very good. As a condo, it was a little on the smaller side, but it’s right on the sweet spot for an upper-end rental.”

Lennar decided to sell its way out of the project after the condo market turned so sharply, Rossi says. “The whole condominium market changed on them,” Rossi says. “Lennar is a large company that has other corporate considerations, and they have to consider on a national basis what their total sold units are. Lennar, like any major condo developer and builder, is retrenching and trying to coin up the balance sheet, and didn’t want to jump into more new product.”