Cunat Launches $56.2 Million DST for Self-Developed Illinois Apartments
Cunat Inc., a privately held real estate investment, development, and property management firm based in McHenry, Ill., has launched Cunat Exchange X DST, a Delaware statutory trust seeking to raise $56.17 million in equity from accredited investors.
The offering is the firm’s 10th DST. The trust owns The Residence of Fox Meadows, a newly developed 540-unit multifamily community in McHenry, about 50 miles northwest of Chicago.
Cunat developed the property and sold it to the DST for $135 million, according to the company. Cunat will retain a 5% interest in the trust, bringing total equity to $59.125 million. The firm has held interests of 5% to 20% in its prior DSTs, the company said.
The property is financed with an $84.375 million, 10-year, interest-only, nonrecourse loan at a fixed rate of 5.43%. The minimum investment is $100,000.
“We developed The Residence of Fox Meadows and have been involved with it from the beginning,” said Brian Cunat, co-founder and chief executive officer of Cunat. “We are not buying somebody else’s newly completed project and hoping its projections are accurate. McHenry County is our home market, and our underwriting is informed by decades of operating results from our own communities there.”
The 18-building community sits on was 97.5% occupied as of Nov. 1, according to the company. It offers one-bedroom, one-bedroom-with-den, and two-bedroom floor plans, with in-unit washers and dryers and private balconies or patios. Amenities include a fitness center, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, basketball courts, playgrounds, and garages.
The property is one of 15 Cunat properties in McHenry County, where the firm is headquartered.
McHenry’s population grew about 6.8% from 2020 to 2025, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. About 74% of the city’s occupied housing units were owner-occupied. Across the Chicago area, multifamily occupancy reached 94.9% in the second quarter of 2026, above the 10-year average of 93.8%, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s Q2 2026 Chicago Multifamily MarketBeat report. The report placed McHenry County among the submarkets posting the largest year-over-year occupancy gains, while recent suburban apartment construction has been concentrated in Will and DuPage counties and northwest Cook County.
Cunat’s nine prior DST offerings raised more than $220 million, the company said. In September 2025, Cunat took its first DST, Cunat Exchange I DST, full cycle, selling the trust’s five multifamily properties and reporting a 12.14% annual rate of return after a hold of about five and a half years.
Founded in 1976, Cunat has completed 61 transactions totaling $3.3 billion and has developed or acquired 12,000 apartment units, according to the company. The firm owns 19 properties, including 4,200 apartment units, and more than $800 million in real estate assets, the company said. All but one of its properties are in the Chicago area. The firm is led by Brian and John Cunat, executive vice president and co-owner, and has 230 employees.
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