Bill Senne’s Bucktown Strip Mall Could Become Apartments

A Bucktown strip mall could soon give way to a mid-rise apartment building, as a longtime local owner moves to redevelop a prominent stretch of Milwaukee Avenue.

Broker-developer Bill Senne introduced a zoning change request to Chicago City Council for a seven-story, 60-unit apartment building at 1704 North Milwaukee Avenue, replacing a low-rise shopping center he has owned for decades, Block Club Chicago reported. The proposal calls for ground-floor retail, two levels of parking and apartments above.

The site currently houses a Garfield’s Beverage Express liquor store and a CorePower Yoga studio, along with a surface parking lot across the street from the Bucktown-Wicker Park library. Under the latest plans, the new building would include nearly 11,000 square feet of retail space along Milwaukee Avenue. Both tenants have expressed interest in returning after construction, according to Senne.

Plans submitted to the city show 60 apartments spread across the upper floors, including a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom units, plus two studios. Twelve apartments would be designated affordable to comply with city requirements. A two-level parking garage on the second and third floors would provide 67 spaces, with 12 reserved for residents and the remainder available as paid public parking.

The parking count is down sharply from earlier iterations. According to the publication, Senne, president of Chicago-based brokerage Property Consultants Realty, and his team first presented the project to neighbors in early September, when plans called for roughly 100 spaces. Since then, the development has added two units and trimmed parking, though the building’s exterior design has stayed the same.

“The changes we made prior to filing are reflected on the floor plans, but the building’s exterior elevations and massing stayed the same,” zoning attorney Nicholas Ftikas said in an email to the outlet.

The zoning change was formally introduced to the City Council last week. It still needs approval from the Council’s Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards, followed by a vote of the full council. The timing is uncertain: The zoning committee hasn’t met since December as aldermen jockey to become its permanent chair, as previously reported by The Real Deal, and a February meeting has yet to be scheduled.

Community reaction has been mostly supportive, according to the outlet, based on meetings hosted by the Wicker Park Committee and Bucktown Community Organization last fall. Some residents raised concerns about the building’s height and potential traffic impacts on Wabansia Avenue and nearby streets.

Senne has argued the parking garage would help replace spaces lost when protected bike lanes were added to Milwaukee Avenue. According to Block Club, Senne told neighbors in September that he was framing the garage as both a business necessity and a neighborhood amenity.

— Eric Weilbacher