PORTAGE PARK — People could move into the apartments inside the former Sears at Six Corners as soon as this fall as construction continues on the development.
Novak Construction, the developer behind the former Sears overhaul at 4712-4738 W. Irving Park Road, is redeveloping the corner building into luxury apartments, a project expected to cost $90 million.
The apartments should be ready by late October and go floor by floor, said Jake Paschen, executive vice president of development at Novak.
The company plans to open a leasing office a few months before October near the development, Paschen said.
The development will have 206 apartments — six of them affordable — that will be a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom units with rents of $2,750-$3,000 per month.
“It is going be a great project, [and] the units are going to be beautiful,” Paschen said. “We are looking forward to getting it finished and moving people in.”
About 50,000 square feet of retail will take up the ground floor, with Target as the anchor tenant. The store is expected to open in fall, company officials previously said. It joins other national retailers, like Aldi, coming to the area,
“We are excited about Target,” Paschen said. The development will be “a great asset to the neighborhood and to Six Corners.”
Target officials will make their own announcements on opening dates and other details, Paschen said. A company leader previously confirmed the store’s opening but did not share more information on store size and exact opening date.
The Sears redevelopment plans call for a fifth-floor addition to the former department store, a portion of which was built in 1938. It closed in 2018.
The project has been under construction since 2021, after it was approved by City Council and received a demolition permit from March 2021. After some exterior work was started without the proper permit, the city issued a stop-work order on Novak and fined the company last summer.
Crews were able to resume work early this year after Novak completed the necessary permits and paid for a third-party firm chosen by the city to examine the previous work and found that it met city codes.
The permitting issues did little to slow down the project timeline, Paschen said. In recent weeks, crews have been seen ramping up work.
“We’ve had more than 100 crews there working,” Paschen said. “Weather has been pretty mild all winter, so we are feeling good.”
Windows are slated to go in soon, officials said.
Novak is behind other big projects, including Portillo’s buildouts, Downtown developments and the Gold Coast’s Whole Foods.
Last week, Novak workers put up large signs in support of Ald. Jim Gardiner (45th) to the scaffolding of the project. They were told to remove them because they violated city law, city spokesperson Erica Schroeder said.
Some neighbors also complained about the signs.
“Municipal code prohibits advertising messages on any construction canopy located within the public way,” Schroeder said in an email.
The signs were moved inside the development, which is private property.
Paschen said the alderman has been a big supporter of the project.
“Jim Gardiner was very helpful to us, and I don’t think the project would be moving forward without his support,” Paschen said.
Gardiner helped push the development forward at City Hall and has repeatedly touted it, saying it will bring revenue to the community and boost revitalization to a once-dormant busy corridor of the city.
“By partnering with Novak Construction, our community is on the verge of unprecedented accomplishments,” Gardiner posted on Facebook last month.
The former Sears overhaul joins The Clarendale, the senior retirement community opening up in May across the street. It will also have retail on the ground floor.
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