Chicago & Midwest + Downtown + Apartments | March 31, 2021

C3, Akara Living Partner on Ghost Kitchens for Serviced Apartments

C3 (Creating Culinary Communities), a food and beverage platform founded by Sam Nazarian, has formed a partnership with Chicago- and Miami-based Akara Living, founded by Rajen Shastri, to integrate ghost kitchens in Kenect, one of Akara Living’s serviced apartment brands.

The venture reportedly marks the first time a portfolio of residential properties utilizes in-house digital ghost kitchens to offer residents convenient and diversified dining options.

C3 kitchens will launch in Summer 2021 at Kenect properties in Nashville and Phoenix and will be included in all future Kenect properties. Akara Living launched Kenect in 2016 in Chicago’s River West district to connect work, living, fitness and social programming under one monthly membership.

“Rajen is a visionary whose foresight about the evolving needs of today’s professionals transformed residential real estate through the Kenect brand,” said Nazarian. “Together, our solution-driven businesses are paving the way for quality and convenience.”

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About Paul Bubny

Paul Bubny serves as Senior Content Director for Connect Commercial Real Estate, a role to which he brings 13-plus years’ experience covering the commercial real estate industry and 30-plus years in business-to-business journalism. In this capacity, he oversees daily operations while also reporting on both local/regional markets and national trends, covering individual transactions across all property types, as well as delving into broader subject matter. He produces 15-20 daily news stories per day and works with the Connect team and clients to develop longer-form content, ranging from Q&As to thought-leadership pieces. Prior to joining Connect, Paul was Managing Editor for both Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com at American Lawyer Media, where he oversaw operations at both publications while also producing daily news and feature-length articles. His tenure in B2B publishing stretches back into the print era, and he has served as Editor in Chief on four national trade publications. Since 1999, Paul has volunteered as the newsletter editor of passenger rail advocacy groups (one national, one local).