Nun of the above: retreat to become apartments

A high-end residential developer plans to build an apartment building on the site of a nun’s retreat in Lincoln Park and sell the rest of the lot for new homes.

The Sisters of the Cenacle, a religious order that owned the property since 1967, sold its Cenacle Retreat Center, at 513 West Fullerton Parkway, sold it last month to fund retirement and health care for its aged members, Crain’s reported. The buyer was an entity associated with Norwol Corporation and developer Rob Buono, a principal at Henry Street Partners. The price wasn’t disclosed.

Buono’s firm will build a multi-unit residential rental building on a 20,000-square-foot site. Homes designed by eight different architects will occupy the rest, according to Luke Blahnik, the @properties agent who will represent the property. The asking price for the lots, ranging in size from 4,800 to 7,500 square feet, hasn’t been released ahead of marketing set to begin early next year.

The Cenacle Retreat, a modernist red brick structure designed by Chicago architect Charles Pope, was subject to city hearings on landmarking and demolitions since the order said it wanted to sell. The Commission on Chicago Landmarks approved its demolition in June, saying it wasn’t a protected piece of the landmarked Mid-North District, designated in 1974 to protect 19th-century homes.

Henry Street Partners was the developer of the 23 townhouse units with private terraces at 1220 North Bosworth Avenue that were built in 2017.

[Crain’s]