More than a year after a dispute erupted between Quadrel Realty Group and several southeast Evanston tenants over a series of landlord code violations and added fees, the company has reached an agreement with the union representing several of its six properties.
In a June 2 social media post, the Quadrel Evanston Tenants Union announced that a deal has been negotiated between residents and the private-equity group to ensure “stability and fairness” for current tenants.
The agreement will extend to five of the six properties Quadrel Realty Group owns in the city, all five of which are located in southeast Evanston and purchased under the same LLC, according to Jonah Karsh, an organizer from the Metropolitan Tenants Organization (MTO) who has been assisting the union with its negotiations.
The sixth building, located at 2730 Hampton Parkway, was purchased by Quadrel separately from the other properties and operates with its own tenant union, according to Karsh.
Quadrel Realty Group did not immediately respond to a Pioneer Press request for comment regarding the tenants’ union deal or further conditions of the agreement.
Under the conditions of the agreement, long-term tenants — those who have lived in their units prior to Quadrel’s purchase of the properties from Wirtz Corporation in 2022 — will receive a 5% rent decrease on their renewal offers for the upcoming rental cycle.
Union members will also get their utility costs “capped and frozen” upon renewal, with the option for a two-year lease agreement at no extra cost.
According to the union, Quadrel was charging roughly $90 a month, per unit, in fees exceeding what it was actually costing the company to operate its rental properties.
The deal will permanently lower these fees to their actual costs and full refunds will be given to tenants who’ve overpaid and lived in their building continuously since Jan. 1, 2025.
“The whole thing is costing [Quadrel] probably hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Karsh told the Pioneer Press, “between the fee refunds, the rent decreases, the utility cost freezes [and] the two-year leases.”
The collectively-bargained lease was negotiated “line-by-line,” with the tenants union, Karsh added.
Roughly 120 residential units will benefit from the union’s new negotiated lease agreement, according to the tenants union.
“The people that were fighting for this deal were living with the uncertainty of not really knowing how this was going to turn out for a year, but they put their faith in each other and their neighbors,” Karsh said.
“In the 21st century United States, we live in a pretty individualistic society and people don’t often think to unite with their neighbor as a means of really getting things done, and to see an example of that happening, and really paying dividends, I think is inspiring for everyone.”
Tenants first sparred with Quadrel back in March 2025 when renters from the 929-935 Michigan Avenue property in Evanston noticed a series of rental hikes and fee increases upon receiving their lease renewal notices.
A majority of these hikes could be attributed to fees that exceeded the cost of the company’s expenses, according to the union.
Several tenants then reached out to the Metropolitan Tenants Organization for support in fighting against their new rental terms and addressing it at City Council, which later adopted stricter penalties for landlords who violate city code.
“The Quadrel Tenant Union and MTO did an excellent job advocating for safe, stable, and affordable housing,” said Ald. Shawn Iles, 3rd, in a statement to the Pioneer Press.
“I was proud to support their efforts, and I’m relieved they achieved reasonable lease terms. The Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance (RLTO) is an excellent framework for governing landlord-tenant relationships in Evanston. It is clear to me that adding fines for RLTO violations was a necessary step to strengthen that ordinance,” Iles said.
Iles’ 3rd Ward encompasses all but one Quadrel-owned property in Evanston.
Ebony Joy, a tenant of the 931 Michigan Avenue unit, told Pioneer Press this deal marks over a year of hard work in fighting against unsustainable fee increases.
“That probably is the biggest thing, is that it feels like people can breathe, that cannot be underestimated,” Joy said.
“But in terms of actual price value, yes, I mean that makes a huge difference in terms of the quality of our daily lives and the money that we have to maintain ourselves.”
Joy said she moved into her apartment complex four months prior to Quadrel purchasing the building in late 2022.
From the start of their ownership, the company “immediately” began “moving people out of their homes and increasing the rent,” she said.
“Those first couple of years when people were getting increases, they were dealing with it because it was better than basically being kicked out…by the third year it was just too much for people that had been squeezed for the last couple of years out of fear of just not having a home.”
The new agreement will result in “thousands of dollars less a year” for tenants like Joy, she said.
According to Karsh, the tenant deal was signed by both parties on April 18, but the union decided against initially publicizing the agreement to ensure all tenant renewals matched “what was agreed to” by Quadrel under the new collective-bargaining lease.
“The peace of mind is something that…you can’t quantify that,” Joy said.
