BUCKTOWN — By early 2021, some 300 apartments and 66 condos — plus retail and offices — will rise in a trio of buildings on vacant land between Lincoln Park and Bucktown, an area a developer behind the project refers to as “East Bucktown.”
First pitched to community groups last December and approved by the full City Council in October, the “Triangle Square” mixed-use development from Belgravia Group plans to bring the condos, apartments, offices and retail to a 4.1-acre patch at the southeast corner of Elston and Webster avenues.
The future Triangle Square is across from Kohl’s and Best Buy and behind a Mariano’s grocery store. It’s near the North Branch of the Chicago River and just north and west of the massive proposed 53-acre Lincoln Yards development.
Named “triangle” for the shape of the land it will sit on and “square” as a nod to a town square gathering spot, the mixed-used development got the green light from the city’s Plan Commission and City Council in September and October, respectively.
David Goldman, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Belgravia Group, told Block Club on Tuesday that his firm is under contract to buy the former industrial land, which was recently rezoned for residential and retail use. The land sale is scheduled to go through in December, Goldman said.
Belgravia plans to spend an estimated $200-250 million on the Triangle Square development, Goldman said.
Crain’s was first to report the approved project moving forward.
Goldman said if everything goes as planned, construction on the condo and apartment buildings will start next summer and fall and the residences will be ready by the end of 2020 or early 2021.
A third building, to be completed after the residences, will offer 12,000 square-foot of retail on the first floor and 12,000 square-foot of offices on the second floor, according to the site plan.
A 7-story brick and glass condo building, to be located at 1701 W. Webster St., will be designed by Chicago-based architecture firm Sullivan Goulette & Wilson. It will offer 6 floors of condos above a first floor parking garage, according to Goldman.
A mix of two and three bedrooms, the condos will range in price from $495,000 to $1 million. There will be balconies for each condo and a shared rooftop deck.
The condos will be listed on the Triangle Square website starting in January, when a sales center will also open, Goldman said.
Rental rates for the 300 apartments, a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments, are not yet available. The 7-story apartment building, as well as the 2-story retail and office building, will face Elston Avenue while the condos will face Webster Avenue.
Goldman said the apartment building — to be designed by the Chicago-based Lamar Johnson Collaborative — will offer retail on the first floor and a ramp leading to parking on the second floor.
The apartment building will feature an open landscaped courtyard and a green roof with skyline views, according to Goldman.
The condo building will offer 67 parking spaces and the apartment building will have 129 parking spaces for residents. That’s more parking spaces for the apartments than the initially proposed 97 at a community meeting last December.
Goldman said he’s “a big fan” of bringing back the CTA Elston bus route, which was discontinued in 1997 due to low ridership.
“The city is talking about the rebuilding of the Metra station, and with The 606 possibly being extended and Lincoln Yards, with all those things going on, I would be surprised it they don’t add additional [bus] service. It makes too much sense for them not to do it,” Goldman said.
Currently there are bike lanes on Elston Avenue, and Triangle Square plans to offer a bike path across its site, which will connect Elston and Webster.
So far, no tenants for the retail/offices building or to anchor the apartments have been tapped but Goldman said, “We are working on some interesting things.”
Goldman said the decision to call the area East Bucktown came as a nod from neighboring Mariano’s, which refers to its grocery store as being in East Bucktown.
“What we love about this neighborhood is that it’s in between Bucktown and Lincoln Park and is a gateway to the North Branch corridor that’s being energized with the coming of Lincoln Yards. We are excited to be at the forefront of what’s going on there, taking that bit of industrial land which has languished for many years and bringing new life to it,” Goldman said.
The site is bordered by Elston on the west, Webster on the north and Metra Union Pacific North tracks on the east. The long-empty land has long been owned by a venture of Fred Eychaner’s printing and broadcasting company, Newsweb Corp.
Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd) could not immediately be reached for comment. Previously he sought feedback and input from community groups.
At a Bucktown Community Organization meeting last December, several residents spoke favorably of the project.
Philip Edison, chairman of the neighborhood group’s zoning committee, previously pointed out that “all of Elston has been under-utilized for a long time.”
