Lexington Homes proposes 300-unit multifamily project

Lexington Homes wants to turn the grounds of a former high school into a vast multifamily development facing the Chicago River with nearly 360 units on the DePaul College Prep campus.

Chicago-based Lexington Homes submitted a zoning application to take down the massive school structures first built in 1952 and long known as Gordon Tech High School, Crain’s reported.

Plans call for 88 townhomes and a 269-unit apartment complex on the seven-acre property at 3601-3737 N. California in North Center.

If approved, the development would bring new housing to the aged northwest side neighborhood off Addison Street at a time when demand has grown and the multifamily market seems to be snapping back, according to JLL’s last housing market outlook.

Lexington, a prolific family-owned homebuilder, is looking to develop three-story townhomes on the northern portion of the site and a six-story, horseshoe-shaped apartment complex on Addison with a river-facing courtyard, the report said.

The property, which was renamed DePaul College Prep in 2014 as part of a rebranding of what was once the male-only Catholic Gordon Tech high school, was sold in 2019. DePaul College Prep, which has an alliance with DePaul University, relocated last year to a new 17-acre campus in nearby Roscoe Village.

The development, which connects to the Riverview Bridge adjacent to the new DePaul College Prep campus, also includes 391 parking spaces and 3,000 square feet of retail space.

The report also noted the plans come ahead of a new law that will raise the numbers of affordable housing units developers will be required to include in apartment projects that goes into effect Oct. 1. Lexington has said it will meet the current requirements with a combination of units and payments allowed in lieu of units.

[Crain’s] — Jennifer Waters