Investor Alfred Fessler has put the tiny but beloved home of the Wieners Circle hot dog stand on the market, raising the possibility that a buyer could raze the building and replace it with a multifamily building.
The 36-year-old stand joins an adjacent 17-unit apartment building on the selling block at 2614-2618 North Clark Street, at the center of a crowded Lincoln Park restaurant district. The seller is asking for $7.5 million for the properties, according to Crain’s.
The sale is being brokered by Jeff Baasch of SVN Chicago Commercial, who told Crain’s the 700-square-foot shack is “not the highest and best use” for an area where demand for residential space is skyrocketing.
An investor group led by Ari Levy bought the Wieners Circle brand in 2015, since then expanding with a new location in Rosemont. They now pay $7,333, or $10.48 per square foot, in monthly rent for the Lincoln Park location.
Current zoning would allow a new property owner to build up to six residential units above a commercial space on the Wieners Circle site.
On Tuesday, real estate investment trust Store Capital sold the Wicker Park home of Smoke Daddy restaurant to a California LLC for $5.1 million. [Crain’s] — Alex Nitkin