An $18.7 million mixed-used redevelopment in the Six Corners shopping district on the Northwest Side will receive city subsidies and has advanced with the approval of the sale of city land to the developer
City officials expect the project of 64 condominiums and 19,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space to draw national retailers to the once thriving shopping district at the intersection of Milwaukee and Cicero Avenues and Irving Park Road.
The 71-year-old Klee Building will be rehabbed as part of the project, which will include construction of a one-story commercial building and a five-story mixed-use building. The project will rise on three parcels, two of which are owned by the city.
The Community Development Commission on March 9 approved the sale of the city-owned parcels to Chicago Klee Development LLC. One parcel is the five-story, 48,460-square-foot triangular Klee Building at 4001-13 N. Milwaukee Ave.; the other is a five-story building at 4022-32 N. Cicero Ave.
Chicago Klee Development is a partnership of two Chicago-based developers — Gary Poter of Poter Development & Construction Co., and Joseph Oshinski, of SEJ Development Inc.
The partnership firm already owns a third parcel, adjacent to the north of the Klee Building, that consists of the former Heller building, 4015 N. Milwaukee, and the former Woolworth Building, 4017-21 N. Milwaukee, Denise Roman, the Department of Planning Development project coordinator, told the commissioners. Those buildings will be demolished to make way for new construction.
The city acquired the Klee Building and the Cicero Avenue parcels between October 2000 and January 2002, Roman said.
City officials selected the partnership from three proposals. “They proposed the best retail plan for the corner,” Roman told the commissioners. She added that Chicago Klee Development came to the table with several national retailers already interested in occupying the new retail space, and said that possible tenants for the corner include Border’s Books, Tower Records, a restaurant, florist and a bank.
Rehab, rather than demolition, of the Klee building was a condition of the city’s sale to the developer.
The developer will build 32 residential units on the Klee Building’s upper floors and 9,250 square feet of retail space on its ground level.
A five-story building will rise on the site to the north of the Klee Building. Designed by architects at Pappageorge/Haymes Ltd., that building is expected to complement the Klee Building, and will have 32 residential units on its upper floors and 4,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor, Roman told commissioners.
The one-story building to be built on Cicero will contain retail space.
Of the project’s 64 condominiums, 13 will be sold as affordable units to households earning up to 100 percent of the Chicago area median income ($75,400 for a family of four), Roman told commissioners. The affordable units will consist of eight one-bedrooms with 793 square feet of space, to sell for $155,000, and five two-bedrooms with 948 square feet, to sell for $175,000, according to the city’s report to the commission.
Market-rate units will be priced from $159,000 for a 697-square-foot one-bedroom to $239,900 for a 1,326-square-foot two-bedroom.
The city will bring $2.4 million in assistance to the project, according to Kathy Feingold of the Planning Department’s finance division, who presented financing aspects of the project to the Community Development Commission.
Part of that assistance will come as a land discount: The two city parcels, appraised for $1.5 million, are being sold to the developer for $200,000, Feingold told commissioners.
The city also will provide $983,000 from the Cicero/Irving TIF (tax increment financing) district, which will subsidize construction costs of the affordable condos and rehabbing of the Klee Building, Feingold said. She added that the TIF assistance will be reduced if the developer sells the market-rate units for significantly more than the projected $159,000 to $239,000.
