Kiferbaum Development Group is moving ahead with its plan to build 28 new apartments near the border of Logan Square and Bucktown, which is among the city’s hottest housing markets.
The Pilsen-based developer received permits last month to break ground on a five-story mixed-use building at 1966 North Milwaukee Avenue, city buildings department records show. Construction is expected to take about a year.
Kiferbaum had originally planned to build 16 units on the site, which the firm paid $550,000 to buy from David Baum of Baum Realty Group in 2017, records show. But president Joseph Kiferbaum expanded the proposal after he struck a deal to buy a neighboring property at 1962 North Milwaukee and demolish it.
The developer closed on the second parcel in a $575,000 deal this spring, according to Cook County property records. A month later, Kiferbaum took out a $6 million loan on the two combined properties from CIBC Bank.
The area was rezoned in January, clearing a path for the larger proposal to go forward.
The building is Kiferbaum’s second project in Logan Square, where the firm is also building a row of six townhouses at 2731 West Prindiville Street near the California CTA Blue Line stop. Kiferbaum told The Real Deal he was drawn to the neighborhood by surging demand for new homes along the Blue Line corridor.
“Logan has really been blowing up,” Kiferbaum said. “There’s so much action going in that area, and we wanted to be part of it.”
The building will include a mix of studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments ranging in rent from about $1,600 to $2,800 per month, he said. The homes would sit above a pair of ground-floor retail stalls measuring about 1,400 square feet each.
The property sits about a block from the Western Blue Line station. Kiferbaum will take advantage of the city’s transit-oriented development rules by including just six parking spaces on the site. Developer Clayco recently completed an even larger transit-oriented development next door, the 132-unit AM 1980, at 1980 North Milwaukee Avenue.
Kiferbaum is also underway on construction for an 11-story luxury condo building at 56 West Huron Street in River North. Owners of a neghboring building filed a lawsuit last year claiming the project’s excavation work had damaged their property.