CHICAGO—It seems like many investors feel it's a good time to buy multifamily properties in the Chicago area. American Realty Advisors, for example, has just sold a class A, 368-unit community in suburban Aurora that it renovated about five years ago. The property, located at 1840 Clubhouse Dr., was purchased by the Miamisburg, OH-based Connor Group for an undisclosed amount, its second multifamily community in the Aurora-Naperville area.

“Institutional and private equity investor interest in high-quality multi-family product throughout this region is currently strong,” says Martha Shelley, a portfolio manager at ARA, which has more than $7 billion in assets under management. “Investors are actively seeking core assets in Chicago submarkets, which made this disposition well-timed to deliver a strong return on behalf of our investors.”

A spokesperson for Connor told GlobeSt.com that “by contract we are asked not to disclose information on the apartment community.” The company has multifamily properties in the metro areas of Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Columbus, Dallas, Dayton, Nashville and Raleigh-Durham. It also has plans to buy property in the Denver area.

ARA was represented in this sale by Susan Lawson and Debbie Corson of ARA Newmark.

Shelley adds that the asset's location in close proximity to schools, retail and strong employment hubs in the medical and education fields helped to attract investor interest for the asset.

“We were actually one of the first institutional owners in this market to recognize the value of a capital improvement program when we implemented a renovation plan in 2009-10,” she says. “By upgrading the asset, we were able to increase the value of the property for our investors, while also increasing our ability to compete with newer luxury product in the market.”

At the time of the sale the apartment community was 96% occupied.

As reported in GlobeSt.com, other investors have decided to buy local multifamily properties that still need a little work to achieve full value. Canyon Partners Real Estate LLC just expanded its suburban Chicago holdings by purchasing Parkway Commons in Carol Stream. That 384-unit apartment community sits adjacent to Preserve at Carol Stream, a 285-unit apartment community that the CMIF acquired last September. Company officials say they will combine the properties to create a 669-unit community and enhance services to the residents.

And Origin Capital Partners and Randolph Street Realty Capital recently formed a joint venture to acquire the Iroquois Club, a multifamily apartment complex in Naperville where a condo conversion project stalled out years ago, and plan to launch an extensive renovation. The purchase price of that complex, the fifth joint venture acquisition between the two firms, was about $38 million.