Lincoln Park’s Leon Hotel hits the market

Property could be converted into affordable housing

Leon Hotel at 2703 North Clark Street and Dawn Overstreet of SVN Chicago Commercial (Google Maps, LinkedIn)
Leon Hotel at 2703 North Clark Street and Dawn Overstreet of SVN Chicago Commercial (Google Maps, LinkedIn)

A single-room occupancy building with retail space in Lincoln Park hit the market with a $3.5 million ask.

The three-story building at 2701-03 North Clark Street holds the 48-unit Leon Hotel and vacant ground-floor retail space, the Chicago Business Journal reported. Currently, 11 residents live in the building, making it roughly 80 percent vacant.

Dawn Overstreet with SVN Chicago Commercial is representing the seller, Vasiliki Vina Lukidis.

“Her husband purchased the hotel in 1978, [so] after 45 years of owning and operating the property, she is ready for the next owner to envision the possibilities for the property,” Overstreet told the outlet.

Lukidis ensured that most of the units and the commercial space remained empty to make the sale of the building a smoother transition.

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The building consists of six large rooms on each floor as well as 36 single-occupancy rooms and community rooms. There is also a new $35,000 boiler, 80-gallon water heater and renovated retail bathroom.

The buyer can redevelop the property into an affordable housing complex. There is a need for more accessible housing since the affluent Lincoln Park neighborhood’s 70,000 residents make an average of $117,000 annually, compared to $62,000 for the rest of the city.

Just down the street from the Leon Hotel, NHP Foundation is redeveloping another former SRO building into an apartment complex. Back in February, the Chicago City Council approved a plan to convert the Covent Hotel into affordable studio apartments.

Beyond the Covent renovation, the developer is proposing a new construction seven-story building adjacent to the hotel. Designed by Brininstool + Lynch, the project would include ground-floor retail, a parking lot, and 84 units. The developer plans to pay almost $800,000 because only two of the units will be affordable. That $800,000 will go toward renovation costs of the Covent.

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— Victoria Pruitt