$9.7 million sale will make downtown Arlington Heights condo building apartments again

A 40-unit condominium building in downtown Arlington Heights has been sold for $9.7 million in a deconversion deal that will make the five-story building apartments again.

Interra Realty, a Chicago-based commercial real estate investment services firm, announced this week it brokered the transaction - equating to $242,500 per unit - for the property at 1 N. Chestnut Ave. The firm represented both the seller, the Chestnut Street Condominium Association, and the confidential buyer, according to the announcement.

The transaction represents the second-highest sale price on a per-unit basis in Arlington Heights in the past five years, according to CoStar, a commercial real estate data company. And it's the second deconversion sale completed by Interra in the village in the last month, following the $4.1 million sale of a 34-unit condo building at 202-222 N. Salem Ave.

"As long as there remains potent rental demand in desirable communities like Arlington Heights, I expect to see continued deconversion opportunities in select Chicago suburbs," Interra Managing Partner Patrick Kennelly said in the company announcement. "This submarket, in particular, has become more of an investment target following headlines related to Arlington Park."

The Chesnut building is about a mile from the shuttered racetrack, where the Chicago Bears have proposed a massive $5 billion redevelopment. It's also right across the street from the proposed $150 million Arlington 425 residential and commercial campus - which would be the next-largest development in town in some two decades, but has stalled amid financing woes.

Constructed in 1971, the Chestnut building has 21 one-bedroom and 19 two-bedroom units, which the buyer plans to improve over time as they turn over, officials said.