CHICAGO, IL – A partnership of Oxford Capital Group and Quadrum Global announce that it has secured a $170-million loan to facilitate the construction of Essex on the Park, a new 56-tale, 479-unit luxury apartment building at 808 South Michigan Avenue. As part of the project, the adjacent Essex Inn at 800 South Michigan Avenue, a historic, 254-room independent hotel, will be expanded to 271 rooms, comprehensively repositioned and upgraded into the Hotel Essex, a luxury lifestyle hotel, starting in late 2018, before reopening in 2019 — concurrent with the grand opening of Essex on the Park.

“We have long been believers in the desirability and irreplaceability of Michigan Avenue real estate in Chicago. This is particularly right of real estate directly on the park and the lakefront, where residents have gorgeous and unencumbered views and open space in perpetuity. We are also believers in the continued and growing attractiveness of ‘walk to work and walk to play’ downtown living for people across the demographic spectrum. We’re excited to get started,” says John W. Rutledge, founder, president and CEO of Oxford Capital Group, LLC, the Chicago-based, national developer, sponsor and manager.

Oleg Pavlov, founder and CEO of Quadrum Global, a global development, investment and management firm, stated: “We are very pleased with the terms of this highly competitive institutional financing that our joint team has been able to obtain for this large-scale mixed-use project. To us, this underscores the continued strength of Chicago’s Downtown market, the city’s vibrant economy, as well as Essex’s unique location and the strength of sponsorship.”

Jordan Ray, Ari Hirt, Steven Buchwald and Jamie Matheny of Mission Capital Advisors advised ownership and ran point in sourcing the financing from a global investment bank.

“It’s extremely challenging for developers to secure non-recourse construction financing in the current lending environment, particularly for transactions of this size, but we had the privilege of working on a very well-conceived project with marquee sponsorship and a fantastic location,” Ray said. “This is a complex, large-scale hotel and apartment project in a highly-competitive market. Despite the size and complexity, we were able to generate interest from multiple lenders who were willing to provide full-stack financing on a non-recourse basis.”

Essex on the Park’s rental residences will have high-end finishes including 9-10′ ceilings, quartz countertops, stainless steel appliances, and in-unit washer/dryers.  Amenities will include a multi-tale “winter garden” with indoor pool, hot tub, and multiple indoor-outdoor spaces, including outdoor grills/kitchens, cabanas, fire pits, and sliding walls with striking views overlooking Grant Park and Lake Michigan. Residents will also delight in a billiard/game room, business center and conference room, expansive state-of-the-art fitness center, yoga / fitness-on-demand room, club room, exhibition kitchen, bike storage, and four floors of onsite parking. The property will also feature the unique offering of in-building access to a chef-driven three-meal restaurant as well as a bi-level “sky bar” and a night life venue overlooking the park and lake, SX, showcasing fully retractable walls.

The apartments will consist of a wide array of unit-types including a mix of studios, convertibles, and one-, two-, and three-bedroom units. The top two residential floors of the building will include four extraordinary penthouse duplexes featuring elegant finishes, gourmet kitchen, large master suite, private outdoor space, and spectacular views of the Lake Michigan, Grant Park, and the Chicago skyline. 

Essex residents will benefit from being a part of a mixed-use complex, including a high-design lifestyle hotel leveraging Oxford’s distinctive approach to hospitality management – featuring high-touch, customer-friendly service while seamlessly integrating unique programming and leading edge technology.

Oxford and Quadrum each have significant experience with high-profile development projects in Chicago and across the country. The two developers recently collaborated to make the award-winning Godfrey Chicago, a 221-key luxury lifestyle hotel that includes the largest indoor/outdoor hotel rooftop lounge in the city. They are also in pre-development of an adaptive-reuse office to hotel conversion project at 168 North Michigan Avenue. 

Essex on the Park and the redevelopment of the Essex Inn are the 15th and 16th Oxford developments in the Chicagoland area. Recent noted Oxford-led local projects include The Godfrey, The Langham, LondonHouse, Hotel Felix, Hotel Cass, and Hyatt Chicago Magnificent Mile (formerly The Wyndham Chicago).  

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MIAMI, FL – MORGAN, a leader in upscale multifamily development, construction and property management, has started leasing Pearl Dadeland in Miami, its latest premium Pearl community. The eight-tale, 412-unit project is a joint venture between MORGAN and Invesco. Construction financing was provided by JPMorgan Chase.

Pearl Dadeland, at 7440 N. Kendall Dr., is located on three acres in the heart of the Dadeland Triangle across Kendall Dr. from the upscale Dadeland Mall and adjacent to a Publix grocery store. The community’s units average 841 square feet with a mix of studios, one, two and three bedrooms. The sleek, sophisticated interiors feature chef inspired kitchens with stainless steel appliances, quartz countertops, under-mount sinks, and under-cabinet lighting.

Other premium Pearl amenities include luxurious bathrooms with oval soaking tubs, glass-enclosed showers and tile floors throughout the bathroom, living and dining areas; walk-in closets; full-size washers and dryers; Nest thermostats; USB charging ports; electronic key entry system; and private balconies. Select apartments have 11-foot ceilings, island kitchens with breakfast bar, double sinks in the master bath, and a desk alcove.

High-end community amenities include an innovative fitness studio with state-of-the-art workout equipment, a yoga room, TRX wall and Peloton Cycles; a resort-style swimming pool with private cabanas, TVs and grilling stations; a WiFi-enabled club house with a theater and gaming room; and a 4,000-square-foot park containing an oversized dog park. Residents of Pearl Dadeland can delight in views of the Miami skyline from the rooftop amenity deck.

“MORGAN’s Pearl properties represent some of the most luxurious apartment communities on the market today,” said MORGAN Regional Vice President Evan Schlecker. “Pearl Dadeland is no exception, offering an array of lifestyle enhancing amenities with a contemporary Miami aesthetic. MORGAN always strives to build communities that deliver on the Pearl brand’s premium promise, while also capturing the essence of the surrounding neighborhood. We believe Pearl Dadeland does just that.”

MORGAN has another community, Midtown 29, under construction in Miami’s Wynwood/Midtown neighborhood and will break ground in January on a community in the Flagler Village neighborhood of Ft. Lauderdale.

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KANSAS CITY, MO – The Community Development Trust (“CDT”), a national investor in affordable housing, has announced a new $1.8 million equity investment in Kensington Heights Apartments, a nine-tale, 126-unit affordable housing apartment building in Kansas City, Mo., that serves low-income senior citizens and people with disabilities.

CDT bought the property through a joint venture with Cleveland-based The Millennia Companies (“Millennia”), a developer and management company that manages over 20,000 units of affordable housing throughout the Midwest, Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. Millennia owns and manages three other affordable housing properties in the Kansas City area.

The transaction is CDT’s first equity investment in Missouri and its first acquisition with Millennia. Through their joint venture, CDT and Millennia will complete $580,000 of capital improvements that will ensure Kensington Heights Apartments is maintained as high-quality affordable housing for elderly and disabled residents. These improvements will include renovating all of the community areas in the 36-year-ancient building as well as installing new high-efficiency boilers.

“We are delighted to partner with Millennia, a group that we believe is well-aligned with our double-bottom-line philosophy here at CDT,” said Brian Dowling, Senior Vice President of Community Investments at CDT. “Millennia is perennially recognized as among the nation’s best-performing affordable housing developers, and we look forward to pursuing more acquisitions with them in 2017.”

Kensington Heights Apartments is conveniently located near Interstate 70 and U.S. Highway 40, and is approximately ten minutes from downtown Kansas City. The complex serves residents who earn 60 percent of the area median income and benefits from a full-time service coordinator who helps residents access and navigate essential support services.

“Our mission is to provide the highest quality of standards in the management, operation and development of affordable and market rate rental housing, thereby striving to enrich the quality of life for our residents,” said The Millennia Companies President and CEO Frank T. Sinito. “Teaming up with CDT to help preserve affordable housing in the Kansas City metro area reflects our commitment to serving low-income residents and the community’s most vulnerable citizens.”

In 2014, the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University calculated that 44 percent of renters in the Kansas City metro area, or approximately 126,000 renter households, were cost burdened. That designation means the households spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs. The report also shows 22 percent of those households were severely cost burdened, spending more than half of their income on housing costs.

Local government and civic leaders in Kansas City have embarked on an ambitious plot in 2017 toward taking meaningful actions that will address significant disparities in housing needs and access to opportunity.

“We applaud CDT and Millennia for their efforts to better serve our residents,” said Kansas City Third District Councilman Jermaine Reed, who represents constituents in the Kensington Heights building. “Their accomplishment is a ‘win-win’ for everyone, by improving housing and providing residents with the peace of mind that their apartments will remain affordable for generations to come.”

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