Redevelopment plans pitched for Avondale’s Belmont Triangle

Four-acre former industrial site has sat vacant for years

Alderman Ariel Reboyras and Avondale’s Belmont Triangle (30thwardchicago, Google Maps, iStock)
Alderman Ariel Reboyras and Avondale’s Belmont Triangle (30thwardchicago, Google Maps, iStock)

A big chunk of Avondale could soon get new life under a new city plan.

Ald. Ariel Reboyras and Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development want to redevelop Avondale’s four-acre Belmont Triangle, a stretch of land composed of three parcels, Block Club Chicago reported.

The site, bound by Milwaukee Avenue, Pulaski Road and West Belmont Avenue, was once the home of a complex of industrial buildings and businesses, but has remained vacant for years.

“After decades of productive, business-oriented uses, the Belmont Triangle is today economically disconnected from the commercial corridors that have long been associated with Avondale’s vitality and culture,” Maurice Cox, commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development, said in a statement.

In the first step of a long process, Reboyras and city planners will host a “community visioning” meeting on April 28 where residents will be able to make suggestions for future uses for the site. Planners will discuss the existing conditions of the site and share the projected redevelopment timeline for the project. Bids from developers will likely be accepted this summer.

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The buildings at the northern and southeastern corners of the site won’t be included in the redevelopment plan.

“In order for this community to thrive, we need density and retail uses to anchor and encourage people to walk, shop, and visit our businesses,” Reboyras said.

The redevelopment of the Belmont Triangle is part of Chicago’s larger “community visioning” initiative, which Mayor Lori Lightfoot implemented to revive unused sites in neighborhoods across the city.

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[BCC] — Victoria Pruitt