Former Uptown synagogue is latest trophy in Cedar Street’s micro apartment rampage

The company gutted the historic building and filled it with 40 compact rental units, starting at $1,600 a month

Cedar Street co-founder Alex Samoylovich and 5029 North Kenmore (Credit: LinkedIn, Cedar Street)
Cedar Street co-founder Alex Samoylovich and 5029 North Kenmore (Credit: LinkedIn, Cedar Street)

Cedar Street Companies has packed its trademark “Flats” micro apartments into former boarding houses, abandoned offices and a historic piano factory. Now it can add a synagogue to the list.

The Chicago-based firm debuted its newest rental complex in Uptown last month, opening 40 compact apartments inside a formerly vacant Jewish house of worship at 5029 North Kenmore Avenue, according to Forbes. The company aptly dubbed the redeveloped building “The Synagogue.” The building rents studio and one-bedroom apartments starting at $1,600 a month, according to its website.

Cedar Street has bought dozens of vacant or deteriorated buildings throughout the last decade, gutted them and filled them with micro apartments as small as 300 square feet. The firm is especially active in Uptown, where it’s set to open 710 new apartments at the intersection of Broadway and Argyle Street as part of a two-phase development.

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Cedar Street now has more than 1,500 new units in its citywide pipeline, including major redevelopments in River North and the Near West Side.

At The Real Deal’s Chicago’s State of the Market event last week, Cedar Street co-founder Alex Samoylovich said he envisions connecting all the apartment buildings in his portfolio into a fully integrated “smart village.” [Forbes] — Alex Nitkin