Mangan Builders to bring transit-oriented development to Lincoln Square

Mangan Builders will develop a four-story, 24-unit apartment building with a retail component in Lincoln Square.

The city granted the Chicago-based firm a construction permit for the building at 4646 North Damen Avenue, which will also feature ground-floor retail space next to the CTA Brown Line tracks and Damen platform.

As a transit-oriented development, the building will have only eight parking spaces. It will rise on the site of two single-family homes.

Mangan bought one of the homes for $700,000 last year. The other was purchased earlier. That has since been demolished.

It obtained a $1.5 million loan for the apartment construction project from Wintrust Bank.

An initial application for the building last year showed 12 two-bedroom apartments, nine one-bedrooms and three studios. Two of the apartments were to be designated as affordable, with tenants earning 60 to 80 percent of the area median income.

Building permit documents peg the cost at $1,450,000, but DNAinfo reported last fall — when the project was approved — it would actually be $4.5 million. City officials approved the project after Mangan changed its initial plans from a nine-apartment building, DNAinfo reported at the time.

Occupancy rates in Chicago-area apartments are essentially holding steady despite accelerating construction, a potential sign that the city will avoid slowing rent growth on both coasts.