Chicago & Midwest + South Side + Apartments | December 8, 2022

Pangea Properties has agreed to sell its portfolio of 400 Chicago multifamily properties for approximately $600 million

Pangea Properties Strikes $600M Deal to Sell Its Chicago Apartment Holdings

Chicago-based Pangea Properties has agreed to sell the multifamily properties it owns locally to Emerald Empire, a real estate investment firm based in suburban New York, reported Crain’s Chicago Business. Emerald is paying about $600 million for the 400-property portfolio, according to a source familiar with the sale.

Pangea, founded by entrepreneur Al Goldstein, began accumulating properties in the depths of the Great Recession. The company acquired low-cost housing in low-income neighborhoods, with a focus on Chicago’s South and West Sides. It eventually expanded beyond Chicago to Indianapolis and Baltimore.

Prior to founding Pangea in 2009, Goldstein launched an online payday loan company, CashNet USA, which he sold for $265 million in 2006. CashNet’s customer base meant that branching into low-income housing was a logical next step.

“That was the tie,” Goldstein told Crain’s in 2012. “That’s where we believed we could create value because we understood the demographic.”

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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).