Uptown's Immaculata Campus Loses Its 22-Story Senior Tower Plan

The redevelopment of Uptown's landmark Immaculata High School campus is moving forward, but a key piece of the original plan has quietly disappeared: a proposed 22-story senior living tower with 192 units is no longer part of the project. Developer K Giles is proceeding with converting the historic school buildings at 640 W. Irving Park Rd. into 245 residential apartments, while a separate company, CityPads, has taken over the parking lot once earmarked for that senior tower.

The senior tower was scrapped from the plans, according to 46th Ward Alderwoman Angela Clay's office, as reported by Block Club Chicago. CityPads acquired the parking lot from American Islamic College in July 2026, splitting what had been a single, unified $210 million project into two separate tracks. The Chicago City Council originally approved that master plan in October 2022, following Chicago Plan Commission approval three months earlier, according to Chicago YIMBY.

Under that 2022 approval, the senior building was designed to include independent living and memory care options across its 192 units. K Giles has not disclosed an anticipated construction timeline for the apartment conversion, but the developer has applied for building permits and is proceeding with adapting the school buildings into residential apartments, per Block Club's reporting.

A Landmark With Strict Limits On Change

The Immaculata High School complex opened in 1921 as an all-girls Catholic institution and was designed by Prairie School architect Barry Byrne, who worked under Frank Lloyd Wright. The building's most striking feature, an 11-foot limestone entrance statue of the Madonna sculpted by Alfonso Iannelli, was removed in 1983 and later restored at Iannelli Studios, according to the Historical Marker Database.

The school shuttered in 1981, and the complex received Chicago Landmark status in 1983, according to Block Club. That designation, granted that same year, explicitly protects the building's exterior elevations, the central lobby's cast-iron staircase, and the two-story auditorium from alteration or demolition, per Chicago YIMBY's reporting on the original entitlements. American Islamic College moved into the campus in 1983 and remained there until deciding to sell in order to fund the institution and its move to a new location.

From Classrooms To Shelter To Construction Site

Before redevelopment could begin, the campus took on an unusual civic role. Starting in 2023, the Uptown campus became a temporary migrant shelter, at times housing between 500 and 600 people, according to Block Club's reporting. The facility was brought under the city's general shelter system in late 2024, combining Chicago's migrant and homeless shelter operations, and it primarily housed families needing shelter by the time it closed in June 2025 as part of a citywide shelter decompression effort, according to the 46th Ward Aldermanic Office.

Alderwoman Clay has said the shelter arrangement was always understood to be temporary, per Block Club. American Islamic College has since established a new academic facility at 1638 W. Howard St. in Rogers Park to continue its educational mission, according to research compiled by MAS Context.

Financing Struggles Led To A Crypto-Backed Crowdfunding Push

The scale of the $210 million master development proved difficult to finance conventionally. In September 2025, K Giles and American Islamic College launched a campaign called Immaculata Living with Neem Capital, an unconventional crowdfunding effort that let individual investors buy project shares using cash or cryptocurrency, with projected annual returns of 7 to 10 percent, according to Chicago YIMBY's reporting. That financing push preceded the eventual sale of the parking lot parcel to CityPads.

What CityPads Does With The Parking Lot Now

For now, CityPads plans to continue renting the parking spaces to neighbors while it weighs its next move. The Los Angeles- and Chicago-area developer previously redeveloped Uptown's former Wilson Men's Hotel and built The Edge on Broadway, a 105-apartment building at 6149 N. Broadway. It also sold the 120-unit Tapestry Station complex in Evanston for $38 million in May, according to Hoodline's earlier coverage of that deal.

The zoning allowances for the parking lot remain in effect, meaning CityPads could still build the previously approved senior tower if it chose to. But if the company wants to build taller or add more units than what was originally entitled, it would need a formal Planned Development amendment, a process requiring approval from the Chicago Plan Commission, the City Council's Committee on Zoning, and the full City Council, according to city zoning documentation cited in the dossier of public records reviewed for this story.

Any changed plans would also trigger another round of community engagement, a process in the 46th Ward that runs through the ward's Zoning and Development Committee and local block clubs before Alderwoman Clay would offer her support, consistent with how development proposals have been vetted in the ward previously.

Affordable Housing Math Left Uncertain

The 2022 city approval required 20 percent affordable housing onsite across the full development, which broke down to 49 affordable apartments inside the historic building conversion and 20 affordable units inside the now-scrapped senior tower. With the tower no longer part of the plan, it remains an open question how the removal of those 192 senior units affects the total affordable housing yield the city had approved for the site. Neither K Giles nor CityPads has said how, or whether, that affordable unit count will be replaced.