A two-story home built in 1888 at 858 North Marshfield Avenue in East Village is being torn down to make way for a new three-unit residential building, with the city issuing a demolition permit on Thursday and a new construction permit the day before that. The teardown carries a reported cost of $14,000, while the replacement structure is valued at $625,855.
The property was purchased for $825,000 in April by an LLC tied to Volo Holdings LLC, according to Chicago YIMBY, which first reported the permits. The outlet's Daniel Schell notes that Volo Holdings LLC — 858 Marshfield Series is the recipient of the new building permit, with Diamond Partnership LLC serving as general contractor and Demox handling the demolition. Hanna Architects is listed as architect of record for the project.
The existing home, which totaled 2,969 square feet with four bedrooms and two bathrooms according to Redfin, will be replaced by a three-story building over a basement containing three dwelling units. Plans call for front balconies on all three stories, a rear stairway connecting the two upper levels to a first-floor terrace, and a three-car garage built along the alley connecting to West Walton and West Pearson streets, topped with its own rooftop deck. The new building will also feature a separate roof deck and stair enclosure. It remains unclear whether the finished units will be offered as for-sale condominiums.
A Familiar Playbook Two Blocks Away
This is not Volo Holdings' first run at this exact template on this street. The developer received a construction permit in May 2024 for a nearly identical three-story, three-unit building with front balconies and a three-car garage at 1087 North Marshfield Avenue, located two blocks north, according to Chicago YIMBY. Volo Holdings used separate series LLCs for each Marshfield Avenue property, the outlet reported at the time.
That earlier project also required regulatory maneuvering: in March 2025, Volo Holdings LLC appeared before the Chicago Zoning Board of Appeals seeking variations for 1087 North Marshfield to reduce required front setbacks from 7.63 feet to 7 feet and rear setbacks from 39 feet to 25 feet, per city records. Setback variations of this kind are a common tool developers use to maximize unit layouts on Chicago's narrow lots.
The developer's history in East Village stretches back further still. In August 2017, Volo Development purchased an 1890s cottage at 912 North Wolcott Avenue for $685,000 and obtained a permit to demolish the 120-year-old house for a multi-unit condo project, as reported by DNAinfo at the time. More recently, in June 2024, Volo Development and Hanna Architects partnered on a larger East Village project at 941 North Damen Avenue, building a four-story, nine-unit elevator condominium with ground-floor commercial space on a former restaurant site.
Fast Turnaround Amid a City Push to Slow Teardowns
The new building permit for 858 North Marshfield moved through the city in just 15 days, with the application starting on July 28 and the permit issued August 12. That pace stands out against typical Chicago timelines: standard plan review permits have taken between 80 and 139 days in 2025 and 2026, according to construction-industry analysis from Permitech.
The speed is notable given that Chicago has been trying to slow exactly this kind of teardown elsewhere in West Town. The City Council passed the Northwest Side Housing Preservation Ordinance in September 2024, which took effect later that year and quadrupled demolition surcharges in parts of West Town from $15,000 to $60,000 per building, aiming to discourage the loss of older, naturally occurring affordable housing. But 858 North Marshfield Avenue sits south of the East Village Chicago Landmark District — designated in 2006 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009 — leaving the 138-year-old home outside the boundaries where those preservation protections and higher surcharges apply.
That gap helps explain why teardowns keep happening on this stretch of Marshfield even as the city tightens rules just blocks away. East Village's housing stock is heavily made up of two-to-four unit residential flats, and the neighborhood's median real estate value of around $780,000 places it among the top 6% most expensive neighborhoods in Illinois, according to NeighborhoodScout data — a market strong enough to keep rewarding developers who replace vintage multi-unit buildings with new construction.
Getting There
For residents keeping an eye on the site, several transit options serve the block. A CTA X9 bus stop and a Route 9 bus stop are both within a two-block walk of 858 North Marshfield Avenue, as is a Route 66 bus stop. Riders can reach the Division Blue Line station using the Route 9 and X9 Ashland buses north to West Division Street, or via the Route 66 Chicago Avenue bus east to Milwaukee Avenue.
Hanna Architects, the firm listed as architect of record, has designed numerous residential infill projects across Chicago and has earned more than 15 Good Neighbor Awards from the Chicago Association of Realtors, according to profiles on Houzz. The firm specializes in multi-unit urban infill design, a niche that has kept it paired with Volo on several of its East Village projects to date.
