The developer behind the Congress Theater rehab is seeking to add a residential building next door.
Developer Michael Moyer has introduced plans to build a 120-foot, 117-unit tower on a vacant lot just north of the theater at 2135 North Milwaukee Avenue in Logan Square, according to Block Club Chicago. Thirty percent of those units would be designated as affordable housing, since the project falls within the Milwaukee Avenue affordable requirement pilot program.
If approved, the building would the third-tallest in Logan Square.
Moyer is currently working to redevelop the Congress, the troubled concert venue that was shuttered in 2013 and that he bought for $16 million in 2015. His $69 million plans call for a 5,000-capacity music venue, 16,000 square feet of retail, a 30-room boutique hotel and 14 affordable housing units, according to the city.
The city’s Community Development Commission in June approved allocating $9.7 million in tax-increment financing funds toward the project, including $800,000 for the residential tower, according to Block Club.
The tower is the latest in a residential boom in Logan Square, where home prices have risen 17 percent this year.
This summer, Fifield Companies secured a $67 million construction loan to turn the former Logan Square Mega Mall site into a mixed-use development with 220 luxury apartments. A few blocks away, Inland National Development is working to build a 100-unit apartment complex at 2845 West Belden Avenue.
The Congress is among a group of once-grand neighborhood theaters/concert venues that have drawn new attention in recent years from developers. A few miles north, Farpoint Development is spearheading a $75 million effort to restore the 93-year-old Uptown Theatre, promising to revive a 46,000-square-foot neighborhood landmark after nearly four decades of vacancy. [Block Club Chicago] — Joe Ward