The Cacciatore family has cashed out of a Pilsen loft office building it has owned since the late 1980s, highlighting the neighborhood’s appeal to developers and investors.
A Cacciatore trust sold Lacuna Lofts, a 220,000-square-foot building at 2150 S. Canalport Ave., to a joint venture of two local real estate firms, Chicago-based Ameritus and JBG Property Holdings, based in Highland Park, said Joey Cacciatore, who oversaw the redevelopment of the property. The venture paid $25 million for the building, said John Scuras, a broker at Jameson Commercial who arranged the sale.
Pilsen has become fertile ground for developers and investors over the past several years, as rising prices have allowed many to buy and fix up properties and sell them for big gains. But the trend also has fueled gentrification concerns, with climbing housing costs pushing families out of the neighborhood.
Even though Lacuna Lofts is an office building, the sale of the property could inflame those tensions, offering another data point illustrating how investors are profiting from the neighborhood’s rise.