CA Ventures, White Oak buy North Side retail strip for large resi project

The $25M deal for the Father and Son Plaza is being financed with a $65M PNC Bank loan

CA Ventures CEO Thomas Scott, White Oak Realty Managing Principal Richard Blum (Credit: 2nd Ward)
CA Ventures CEO Thomas Scott, White Oak Realty Managing Principal Richard Blum (Credit: 2nd Ward)

CA Ventures and White Oak Realty Partners bought a North Side retail strip where they plan to develop a large apartment building with ground-floor retail. The partnership is now on its third iteration of the residential complex, after two previous versions were met with strong community opposition.

The joint venture of the two Chicago firms paid $24.8 million for the Father and Son Plaza at 649 West North Avenue, according to Cook County property records.

The developers also secured a $65 million loan on the property from PNC Bank, county records show.

CA and White Oak first announced plans for the Old Town property in 2016, calling for a 14-story building with as many as 365 apartments, 30,000 square feet of ground floor retail and 188 parking spaces, according to Curbed.

Amid community opposition, the developers scaled back their plans, calling for an 11-story building with 293 units. Still, they couldn’t win the support of Alderman Brian Hopkins (2nd).

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They returned in January with plans for a part 10-story/part 11-story building with 261 apartments. The plan would provide seven affordable rate units on-site as well as see the developer contribute roughly $2.4 million to Chicago’s affordable housing fund, according to Curbed.

The property sits less than a mile from where The Domain Group plans a micro-apartment building on the current site of Sammy’s Red Hots and only a few blocks from where JAB Real Estate is listing a mixed-use building it developed last year in Old Town for $25.6 million.

The three Old Town project sites sit just to the north of the River North neighborhood, where developers have a number of residential projects in the works, including Onni Group’s 38-story apartment tower at 353 West Grand Avenue and Sedgwick Properties’ 15-story condo building at 146 West Erie Street.

CA said in a statement Thursday demolition of the property will start next month, with construction starting immediately after.