Some weeks at City Hall are about one big project. Others are about a stack of smaller ones that add up. On Tuesday, Oct. 13, the City Council's zoning committee had one of those weeks.
According to Block Club Chicago, the committee advanced apartment buildings on the Near North Side and in Lincoln Square, Austin and North Park, a behavioral health center in Humboldt Park, and a surface parking lot for Southwest Airlines employees near Midway Airport.
The projects still needed the full City Council's approval. The council met the next day, Wednesday, Oct. 14, and a meeting summary from ChicagoPolitics.org, an independent tracker of council business, lists the zoning committee's report as passed.
The Cabrini project
The biggest residential piece is a 78-unit building from Brinshore Development and The Michaels Organization at 537-547 W. Oak St., on long-vacant land owned by the Chicago Housing Authority. It will rise seven stories and mix public housing, affordable and market-rate apartments.
This one has been in the works for years. Attorney Steve Friedland said it got zoning approval in 2021 but was set back by financing delays.
"We're here to rejuvenate this [zoning status] in 2026," he said.
Block Club, citing Chicago YIMBY, reported the project received $14 million in tax increment financing last year.
Apartments, a clinic and a parking lot
Three mid-size apartment buildings also moved forward:
- Lincoln Square: At 2648 W. Lawrence Ave., MLV Properties plans a five-story, 37-unit building with ground-floor retail and 13 parking spaces. Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th) posted on his website that he fully supports it.
- Austin: At 1745-1759 N. Cicero Ave., 1749 NCA, LLC wants to build a five-story building with 36 apartments and 34 parking spaces, with no commercial space.
- North Park: At 3244-3250 W. Bryn Mawr Ave., a developer plans to replace a vacant building with a five-story, 40-unit building with 25 parking spaces and ground-floor commercial space.
In Humboldt Park, Humboldt Park Health, the neighborhood's safety-net hospital, wants to build a three-story "outpatient behavioral health clinic, urgent care center and medical office" at 1140 N. California Ave., replacing a shuttered laundromat. It's the latest addition to the hospital's footprint in the area. Last year, the hospital opened a $30 million wellness center a few blocks away on Division Street.
"We're looking forward to Humboldt Park Health expanding their medical services to the California corridor, also bookmarking this particular corner behind the gas station, which will make it safer and be a resource for our residents," said Ald. Jessie Fuentes (26th).
Near Midway, Southwest Airlines plans to demolish the former St. Camillus Catholic church and other long-closed buildings at 55th Street and Lockwood Avenue and put in a surface lot with around 360 spaces for its employees, not the public. Warren Silver, an attorney for the airline, said the lot is "strictly intended to support Southwest's operations and to take pressure off of publicly available parking on neighborhood streets." He said Southwest is "in the process" of buying the property from the Archdiocese of Chicago.
The committee also put off a vote on a proposal from Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) to rescind the city landmark status of the Cortland Street bridge, which has been closed for more than a year because of maintenance problems. The Chicago Department of Transportation said construction on the bridge will resume in 2026 and wrap up by the end of 2028, and Hopkins tabled his measure.
None of the coverage named a general contractor for any of these projects.
Why it matters for Contractors
This is what a healthy mid-size pipeline looks like in Chicago. Five-story buildings in the 36- to 40-unit range, like the Lincoln Square, Austin and North Park projects, are a sweet spot for local general contractors and the subs who work with them, from foundations and framing to MEP and finishes. The seven-story Cabrini building, with public housing in the mix and TIF money behind it, typically comes with the documentation and compliance requirements that public financing brings. The Humboldt Park Health clinic is a chance for healthcare-experienced builders and specialty MEP crews. And the Southwest lot means demolition, then grading, paving, drainage, striping and lighting work near Midway. Zoning is an early step, so contractors who want in should reach out to the developers now, before bid packages go out.