If you build in Chicago, you've seen plenty of four- and five-story brick apartment buildings go up. Two more showed up on the radar this past week, one with a key approval in hand and one just getting started.
West Loop: 1133 W. Kinzie Clears the Plan Commission
The Chicago Plan Commission has approved plans for a residential building at 1133 W. Kinzie St. in the West Loop, Ian Achong reported for Chicago YIMBY. The developer is local firm Range Group, working with SEEK Design + Architecture. The project was first revealed earlier this summer.
The site is just north of the Metra tracks. The building will top out around 60 feet, and Chicago YIMBY says it follows a design motif very similar to Range Group's nearby development at 465 N. Carpenter, though a different design firm handled that one. It also continues a low-rise streetwall slowly forming along Kinzie, next to a recently approved project at 1201 W. Kinzie.
Here's what's inside:
- 110 residential units: 59 studios, 42 one-bedrooms and nine two-bedrooms.
- A block-long structure with its center portion inset, creating small terraces for most of the ground-floor liner units.
- A small lobby, fitness room, bike room and a 33-vehicle parking garage in the rear.
Seventeen of the units will be affordable, with the developer paying in lieu of the remaining five percent.
The price tag is $20 million. Before anybody breaks ground, the project still needs City Council approval. Chicago YIMBY reports the target is a February groundbreaking, with completion in spring 2028.
Do the quick math on that reported $20 million and it works out to roughly $182,000 per unit.
Bucktown: 27 Units Proposed at 2343 N. Damen
A day later, Chicago YIMBY reported that a four-story residential building is proposed for 2343 N. Damen Ave. in Bucktown, at the corner of North Lister Avenue on the neighborhood's northern edge.
Local developer Platinum Homes, which has worked on similarly sized projects around Chicagoland, submitted a zoning application to replace an existing one-story commercial building on the site. Chicago-based 360 Design Studio drew the plans.
The building would top out around 50 feet and be clad in brick with inset window bays. It includes a partially sunken basement level holding the lower floors of street-front duplex units, which will be entered from the ground floor. That floor also gets a small lobby, bike parking room and a 16-vehicle garage in the rear. The upper floors hold the rest of the 27 units.
Unit types will range from one to four bedrooms, and five units will be set aside as affordable. Most residences get a private balcony, and everyone gets a shared rooftop deck.
No cost or timeline has been released. The project first needs approval for its zoning application.
What the Two Projects Have in Common
Different neighborhoods, different sizes, but the two projects share a lot. Both are brick-clad, both stay at four or five stories, both tuck parking into the rear, and both include affordable units. Both also still have a city approval to clear before construction can start.
For builders, that means the schedule you can really count on starts after the votes, not before. Until then, dates like February are targets.
Why it matters for Contractors
Mid-rise projects like these are steady work for a wide range of Chicago contractors: masonry crews for all that brick, framers and drywall hangers, electricians, plumbers and HVAC subs working through dozens of small units, plus concrete and site crews for the garages and that sunken basement level in Bucktown.
The Kinzie project is the one to watch first. It has a $20 million budget, a February groundbreaking target and a spring 2028 finish, but it still needs City Council approval. If it gets through, bidding and buyout won't be far behind. Its design is worth a look for the trades, too. An inset center section with ground-floor terraces means more corners, more flashing and more detail work than a flat brick box, and that's work that has to be priced right.
Bucktown is earlier in the process. Platinum Homes still needs its zoning application approved, and there's no cost or timeline yet. But at 27 units with duplexes and balconies, it's the kind of job a lot of small and mid-size residential contractors in the city are built for.