A Canadian investor is betting on Chicago’s parking sector while others steer clear. 

Toronto-based Clermont has spent more than $100 million over the past four months acquiring four downtown Chicago parking garages with over 3,200 spaces, CoStar reported. 

The buying spree includes properties near Millennium Park and the Merchandise Mart. The purchases come as other operators are exiting the market amid remote work headwinds, rideshare disruption and looming congestion pricing policies. 

Clermont is led by Gordon Craig, former president of Impark. It’s unclear whether the Chicago deals are its first foray into U.S. real estate. 

The firm has made four recent acquisitions. It paid:

• $70 million for a 1,018-space garage at Randolph and Lake streets near Millennium Park. The sale was brokered by Newmark’s Nicholas Bicardo and Cheyne Bloch and Colliers’ Mike Senner, Ben Greazel and Joel Simmons 
• $12.5 million for the 567-space MartParc Orleans, across from the Merchandise Mart. The sale was brokered by JLL’s Sam DiFrancesca, Bruce Miller, Dan Reynolds, Jaime Fink, Patrick Shields and John Mason 
• $12.4 million for the 210-space “Rolls-Royce Garage” at 60 East Lake Street, designed by Stanley Tigerman
• an undisclosed amount to buy the loan on the 1,442-space Washington Madison Wells Self Park, formerly owned by the late billionaire real estate investor Sam Zell, who died in 2023. That sale was brokered by CBRE’s Blake Johnson, Arthur Johnson, David Knapp, Michael Hassler and John Saletta. 

Clermont took control of the Madison garage via deed in lieu of foreclosure from Zell’s Equity Group Investments, with Northwestern Mutual financing the deal through an $18.9 million loan. The loan purchase price was roughly half of the $52.5 million balance from 2016, a source told the outlet. 

Analysts consider Chicago an oversupplied parking market. The city has eliminated parking minimums near transit, while demand has shrunk. 

Still, players like Clermont and the buyers of New York’s Icon Parking have swooped in, sometimes picking up garages at steep discounts. 

All four of Clermont’s garages include ground-floor retail, and some have been pitched as long-term redevelopment plays. A JLL brochure for MartParc Orleans included a rendering of a residential tower. The Madison garage, once a 12-story office building, has twice switched use between parking and offices over the past 50 years. 

— Judah Duke

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