The Loop’s oldest building is now the site of its latest $60M recapitalization.
JP Real Estate Partners managing director Jay Schiesser tells us his firm just arranged a $60M refi from Australian bank Macquarie of the Infinite – Gibbons/Steger Buildings on behalf of developer CA Ventures. (He's snapped with his wife, Mid-America's Paige Schiesser, at her baby shower. The couple is expecting their first child.) Infinite is a newly renovated, 124-unit student housing and ground-floor retail project composed of a trio of historic buildings at 28 E Jackson: the 17-story Gibbons Building, built in 1912, and the 19-story Steger building, built in 1910, connected by a multi-story skybridge above the Pickwick Stable (now home to Asado Coffee), which holds the title of Loop’s oldest building and supposedly dates back to 1857. That CA was able to take out its construction loan and recapitalize prior to stabilization is an example of the market’s healthy appetite for downtown student housing product and the quality of CA's project, Jay says.
Infinite (above) opened in August, so leasing has been ramping up in concert with the loan process. The project's federal historic rehabilitation tax credits added some extra layers of complexity to the deal, Jay says, since you’re dealing with the FHTC’s master lease structure with the tax credit investor. As increasing amounts of new, more efficient office product goes up in the West Loop, Jay expects we’ll see continued adaptive reuse in the East Loop, with older office property being converted to residential or mixed-use.
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