Steel framing is climbing at the site of the former White Eagle banquet hall in Niles, where crews are racing toward a December 2027 finish on a $156 million apartment complex called Riverbank. The 354-unit project, spread across 7 acres at 6759–6839 N. Milwaukee Ave., will replace a venue that once hosted Pope John Paul II, former President Jimmy Carter, and Muhammad Ali. Six rows of townhomes on the property already have framing complete, with windows installed and interior finishes underway.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, construction has continued for six months, and crews expect to begin installing drywall, tile and flooring in some of the first units by the end of this month. Bart Przyjemski, who leads developer Noah Properties and purchased the White Eagle site for $5.7 million in December 2025, is overseeing a project that includes studios, one-bedroom, two-bedroom and four-bedroom homes across ten buildings. A second Riverbank apartment building already has a poured foundation for its attached parking garage, per the same account.
A Polish Cultural Landmark Gives Way
White Eagle traces back to 1947, when Ted Przybylo opened the business in Chicago before moving it to Niles in 1967, according to Journal & Topics. The hall grew into a roughly 1,000-seat banquet space and a longtime gathering place for Chicago's Polish community, hosting dignitaries including Lech Wałęsa alongside the pope, Carter and Ali, the Sun-Times reports. Before being operated by Victoria Banquets starting in 2015, the venue was owned by former Niles Mayor Andrew Przybylo and his siblings, and the complex at its peak spanned roughly 70,000 square feet across nearly 6.5 acres with room for 1,500 guests, according to The Real Deal.
White Eagle closed at the end of 2025, and its demolition cost $250,000, per the Sun-Times. Katie Schneider, Niles deputy village manager, said the Niles Historical Society removed a number of items from the building before it came down, and some White Eagle artifacts may eventually be repurposed at the Riverbank property or housed at the Niles Historical and Cultural Center. “The Polish community is a large part of Niles history because of White Eagle,” Schneider said, according to the Sun-Times. Materials from the former Silver Leaf Tavern, including stained glass and original cladding, may also be reused, the outlet notes.
Financing the Foundation Beneath a Flood Tunnel
Getting Riverbank out of the ground has not been simple. Construction costs on the roughly $150 million project were driven up by soil instability tied to historical excavation for Cook County's Deep Tunnel flood control system, which forced building foundations to be anchored roughly 26 feet deep, according to The Real Deal. Those subsurface issues prompted the developer to seek tax-increment financing help, and the Village of Niles moved in January 2026 to establish a single-project, self-generating TIF district specifically for the White Eagle parcels, as detailed by Journal & Topics. The parcels previously sat inside the Milwaukee Touhy TIF District, which retired in 2020, that outlet reported. Genesis Capital, based in California, provided a $3.9 million mortgage for the site, according to property records cited by the Sun-Times.
The path to approval also required compromise with neighbors. Nadig Newspapers reported that Niles trustees unanimously approved a special use permit for the project in September 2025, attaching a record 16 village conditions covering neighborhood traffic, property fencing, state road coordination, and video documentation of demolition. A project traffic study estimated the development would generate 102 additional vehicle trips during morning peak hours and 59 during evening peak hours along Milwaukee Avenue, prompting village officials to consult with the Illinois Department of Transportation on corridor management, per the same outlet. Facing objections from residents at the adjacent Eagle Point Condominiums over height, density and congestion, the developer ultimately dropped the unit count from 398 to 354.
Designed for a Changing Milwaukee Avenue Corridor
Chicago-based Jonathan Splitt Architects designed the Riverbank master plan, which calls for four mid-rise apartment buildings ranging from four to six stories, six three-story townhome rows, a 6,000-square-foot retail and restaurant space, and 17,000 square feet of public green space, according to the Village of Niles. The Sun-Times adds that the finished property will include a new park, public plaza, pool, playground and parking. Pricing for the units has not yet been determined, per the outlet.
Niles Mayor George Alpogianis said Riverbank will usher in the next chapter for the site and pointed to demand in the village for high-end luxury rental units, the Sun-Times reports. Chris Ragusto, the village's director of community development, said Milwaukee Avenue will undergo a broader transformation, and Noah Properties is expected to undertake road widening, new landscaping and an art plaza as part of that corridor work called for in the Niles South Milwaukee Avenue Corridor Plan. A medical building at 6759 N. Milwaukee will be demolished to make way for additional construction, though Noah Properties is still waiting on permit approvals for buildings planned at the front of the property.
Village officials envision Riverbank's apartments and townhomes attracting young professionals and families to a village where the median age is 48.2 years, according to World Population Review. The vision aligns with the Niles 2040 Comprehensive Plan, adopted in 2024, which calls for more places for residents to live, work, shop and play along Milwaukee Avenue. Nearby projects suggest there is appetite for that kind of housing: Novu, a 180-unit luxury apartment building at 6633 N. Milwaukee also developed by Noah Properties, is 80 percent leased, while The Grand Stone at 9201 N. Milwaukee leased all 48 of its units within a single month, Ragusto said, per the Sun-Times.
The activity around White Eagle also fits into a wider pattern of investment in Niles real estate. In December 2025, real estate firms Centaur Capital and Talos acquired a 314,000-square-foot FedEx Ground distribution hub on Howard Street for $72.2 million, a deal Hoodline previously covered as part of broader institutional interest in the village's commercial footprint. Noah Properties itself has been active across the Chicago suburbs, including an August 2025 sale of a 52-unit townhome property for $34 million and a July 2026 residential sale in Glencoe for $18 million, according to The Real Deal.
