The holiday season has been an opportune time for Marc Realty Residential, which just closed on two more value-add properties with some high-profile neighbors. (The only thing our neighbors got us were blinding Christmas lights and their drunk cousin passed out on our lawn.)

Principal David Ruttenberg exclusively tells Bisnow that the firm just closed on buildings in the Randolph-Fulton submarket and near UChicago, in addition to funding lots of participating- and hard-money loans. They paid $950k in cash for the first property, a 6,000 SF restaurant space (formerly Jerry Kleiner's Victor Hotel) at 311 N Sangamon, which will be neighbors with Google's new HQ at 1K Fulton. (And they're very far along with a NNN lease to a new restaurant concept, he hints.) The seller was a partner in the Kleiner venture. David liked the warehouse property for its existing infrastructure and close proximity to major residential neighborhoods. The restaurant should open in spring/summer, he says. (Once we all thaw out.)

MRR also paid $4.2M (including a loan from Republic Bank) for a 30-unit multifamily property (above) at 5432 S Woodlawn, close to the UChicago campus and splashy new retail project Harper Court. The seller was the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, repped by Colliers' Brian Pohl. The units are going to be gut renovated to condo quality and MRR believes the majority of their tenants will be UChicago students, David says. MRR is in for permits with a goal to be ready in August to hit the student market. At home, David's busy with Sasha, a three-month-old angel that sleeps through the night, and Solomon, a bit of a monkey at 27 months. The family is headed to Kansas City to see relatives over the holidays.