When the city of Chicago makes it harder to turn condominium buildings into apartments, suburbs like Evanston look a lot better to certain investors.

The northern suburb looks good to North Park Ventures, which just paid $17 million for a 91-unit condo building near Northwestern University’s Ryan Field. The Chicago-based real estate investment firm has converted the property at 2730-2766 Hampton Parkway back into rental housing, a strategy that became popular in the city as apartment rents and values rose several years ago—and condo resale prices languished.

With suburbs like Evanston still operating under the 75 percent requirement, they’re attracting more interest from condo deconversion specialists.

“The barrier to entry is lower, so the opportunities are larger in the suburbs,” said Patrick Kennelly, managing partner at Interra Realty, the Chicago apartment brokerage that arranged the Evanston deal.

Still, even at the 75 percent threshold, the sale to North Park received just enough votes to pass, he said.

“We just squeaked it out,” Kennelly said.

Read article: Crain’s