A luxury apartment building in Lincoln Park broke ground Wednesday, making it one of the only ground-up development projects in the neighborhood during an unstable time for new development.
Moyer Properties plans to build a seven-story apartment building at 537 W. Drummond Place. When complete, the property will replace a longtime parking lot that was being rented by the U.S. Postal Service.
The apartment building will include 84 units, with a mix of studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments. Two of the units will be affordable while the rest will have market rate rents. The building will be complete in spring 2026.
A rendering of the Moyer Properties’ apartment project hangs on a fence, behind representatives from Moyer, Summit Design + Build and ParkFowler Plus, during a ground breaking ceremony for the development.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
“We’re really, really excited about this site,” said Greg Moyer, founder of Moyer Properties. “We’ve been working with the team … for the last 18 months.”
Amenities will include a dog-washing station, co-working lounge, fitness center and roof deck, which will have views of the lake and city, Moyer said. The location also offers its own benefts, Moyer said, pointing out a Target across the street as well as restaurants and bus lines.
The mid-rise building is an extension of the Convent Hotel’s redevelopment next door. Real estate nonprofit the NHP Foundation completed rehabilitation of the building, at 2653 N. Clark St., last fall. Its transformation of the former single-room occupancy hotel created 30 affordable studio apartments with private bathrooms and kitchens.
The hotel opened in 1915, next door to a now-demolished theater that seated thousands. The theater was demolished in the 1960s, according to Moyer’s Alex Milanoski, and became the parking lot used by the U.S. Postal Service.
Summit Design + Build is serving as general contractor, and the architect is Chicago-based firm ParkFowler Plus.
Brad Fowler, principal at ParkFowler, said the luxury apartment building will be a “modern twist” on the hotel’s old design. Like the hotel, it will be a brick building, and it will have a lighter color palette and glass storefront, bringing the design into the modern era.
“It’s kind of a cool ode for us from the past and the future,” Fowler said.
In Lincoln Park, there’s not much land available for new, ground-up development. Coupled with high construction costs and what Moyer described as a “very challenging” financing market in the aftermath of the pandemic, development in Chicago — and countless other cities — has slowed in recent years.
Adam Miller, president of Summit, said, “People maybe took ground-up projects for granted back in the day when real estate was really booming, and now it’s something to really celebrate because it’s a lot of work. It is a big deal to get a job going — especially in Chicago — in these days.”
Ald. Timmy Knudsen’s (43rd) office said 537 W. Drummond Place is one of the only ground-up projects happening in the ward “for a while” due to a dearth of open land.
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