A three-story, six-unit residential building has been permitted for 4852 N Sawyer Avenue in Albany Park, on a corner parcel that sits directly beside the Cherubim & Seraphim Movement Church and steps from two elementary schools. The city issued the construction permit on August 7, roughly 155 days after the application was filed on March 5, with a reported project cost of $1.25 million.
According to Chicago YIMBY, the building will rise three stories with no basement, featuring decks and a rear stairway connecting all three levels, plus a rooftop deck with stair enclosures. The site currently houses the Cherubim & Seraphim Movement Church, whose main address is listed at the adjacent 4850 North Sawyer, and the outlet reports that a search of the Chicago data portal turned up no searchable demolition permits, leaving unclear whether either church address has a pending permit to be torn down. Property records also showed no sales information for the properties, the outlet noted.
The corner parcel sits next to both Albany Park Multicultural Academy and Hibbard Elementary School, both located on the north side of West Ainslie Street. Compass Architecture is listed as architect of record, while Spec Development LLC, a Buffalo Grove-based builder, serves as general contractor. Chicago YIMBY previously documented the same firm building a near-identical three-story, six-unit building with a detached six-car garage at 2654 N Greenview Ave in Lincoln Park.
A Church's Uncertain Future Next Door
The Sawyer Avenue site carries a layered institutional history. Archives from Chicago Jewish newspaper The Sentinel show the property at 4850–4852 N Sawyer Ave once served as the house of worship for Congregation B'nai Shalom of Albany Park during the 1960s, before the Cherubim & Seraphim Movement Church took over the space. As recently as 2023, Borderless Magazine reported that the church operated a weekly Saturday morning food distribution pantry for neighborhood residents, a detail that underscores what could be at stake for the surrounding community if the congregation's presence changes. Whether the church is relocating, downsizing, or simply remaining on its adjacent parcel is not clarified by available property records.
Why Only Six Units, Not Fourteen
The parcel's RT4 zoning designation would allow up to 14 multi-family units as-of-right along with additional transit-oriented density bonuses, according to a Crexi listing for the 12,000-square-foot corner lot. Capping the project at six units lets Spec Development build without seeking a zoning change from 33rd Ward Alderwoman Rossana Rodríguez-Sánchez, whose office maintains a strict community zoning review process in Albany Park requiring a public presentation and a two-week public comment period, as Block Club Chicago has reported. Staying under ten units also means the development sidesteps Chicago's Affordable Requirements Ordinance, which mandates affordable set-aside units only for developments of 10 or more units, according to an Illinois Policy Institute analysis.
The planned building will include a one-to-one parking ratio, with a detached six-car garage located on the West Ainslie Street alley that itself includes a roof deck and a pergola. That parking allotment appears to be a builder choice rather than a legal requirement: Chicago's City Council eliminated mandatory parking minimums as-of-right for Transit-Served Locations within a half-mile of CTA rail stations in a July 2025 ordinance, per legal analysis from Taft Law. Illinois has since gone further, with the statewide People Over Parking Act barring municipalities from enforcing parking mandates near transit hubs beginning June 1, 2026, according to Levenfeld Pearlstein.
Transit Access And Likely Pricing
The site sits close to several transit options. Route 81 buses stop within a two-block walk at West Lawrence Avenue, while Route 93 buses stop within a similar distance at North Kedzie Avenue; the Kedzie Brown Line platform is a similar walk to the southeast, and the Brown Line's outbound terminus is three blocks southwest of the corner parcel. Given the one-to-one parking ratio and the overall project scope, the six units are presumed to be offered as for-sale condos rather than rentals, per Chicago YIMBY's reporting.
The 155-day span between application and permit issuance falls within typical ranges for Chicago's multi-departmental review process; industry analysis from Option Premier notes that Standard Plan Review permits for multi-family builds under 50 units typically take 8 to 16 weeks to process. The Sawyer Avenue project adds to a wave of small-scale infill housing recently permitted across the city, following a similar six-unit-style filing Hoodline covered in Woodlawn earlier this month. Albany Park has long served as one of the Northwest Side's more affordable rental markets, with Hoodline's own analysis of Zumper data once putting median one-bedroom rents in the neighborhood around $1,137 to $1,150 a month, well below the citywide median — a baseline that underscores how a new run of for-sale condos could shift the area's housing mix.
