A newly built, seven-bedroom mansion at 2018 N. Seminary Avenue in Lincoln Park has hit the market for $7.3 million, rising on a lot that once held a 19th-century workers cottage torn down over the summer. The 7,200-square-foot home works out to roughly $1,007 per square foot, and it's the latest example of a North Side pattern in which century-old single-family houses are giving way to multi-million-dollar custom builds.
Chicago-based Old Head Development purchased the property for $2.5 million in May and demolished the historic cottage over the summer, according to The Real Deal. The new home is expected to feature a brick and limestone facade, a three-car garage, and a layout buyers can still customize, with completion slated for spring or summer 2027 per the listing broker. Meridian Real Estate represents the property, and listing broker Andrew Thurston said the lot's extra width is its biggest selling point.
A Wider Lot in a Grid Built for Narrow Ones
The Seminary Avenue development sits on a 37.5-foot-wide lot, well beyond Chicago's typical 25-foot single-family parcel, according to the same report. City permit records show the resulting parcel spans 4,687 square feet, giving it 50% more street frontage than a standard lot, per Compass property data. That extra frontage and square footage matter in a neighborhood where Thurston said five to ten buyers wait for every new lot that comes to market, and where he expects that demand to continue.
The planned home is expected to be a three-story single-family residence with a basement, multiple outdoor spaces, an attached breezeway, and a three-car garage with a roof deck. Once finished, the home is expected to include nine bathrooms alongside its seven bedrooms.
What Was Lost: An 1890s Workers Cottage
Before Old Head Development broke ground, the lot held a historic workers cottage dating to the 1890s, according to documentation from Preservation Chicago. The orange-rated cottage sat just outside the Armitage-Halsted Historic District, and local preservationists raised concerns on social media before it came down. City of Chicago records show the property was placed on the Demolition Delay Hold List in July 2025 before being formally released for demolition in October 2025 and again in February 2026.
That delay traces back to Chicago's Demolition Delay Ordinance, enacted in 2003, which mandates a hold of up to 90 days on demolition permits for properties rated orange or red in the Chicago Historic Resources Survey, giving preservationists a window to explore alternatives before wrecking crews move in. The pause on Seminary Avenue ultimately did not save the cottage, and the site now anchors one of the more closely watched spec builds in Lincoln Park this year.
Amenities Aimed at the Wellness-Minded Luxury Buyer
Listing materials describe a wellness center with a sauna and cold plunge, temperature-controlled wine storage, Sub-Zero and Wolf kitchen appliances, and optional elevator access to all floors, according to Redfin. The property is assigned to Oscar Mayer Magnet School for Pre-K through 8th grade and Lincoln Park High School, a detail that can matter as much to family buyers as any spa feature in this part of the North Side.
The Lincoln Park market overall has a median single-family sale price of around $2.7 million, and properties here tend to trigger bidding wars and sell quickly, Thurston told The Real Deal. He described the property as having drawn significant interest, consistent with the broader scarcity of inventory across the neighborhood.
Part of a Broader Teardown Trend
The Seminary Avenue project fits a pattern Hoodline has tracked across the North Side. In August, Hoodline reported that a roughly 128-year-old home at 911 W. Diversey Parkway, identified by Chicago YIMBY as having been built around 1900, was cleared for demolition after selling for $1.3 million, making way for a four-story-plus-basement condo building. Hoodline also covered an 1895 Lake View frame house slated to fall for a three-story-plus-basement condo project near the Paulina stop.
That same reporting cited a nearly 28% year-over-year drop in North Side condo listings, with an estimated 10 to 15 active buyers competing for each available unit — a squeeze that helps explain why developers are willing to pay a premium for wide, rare lots like this one. Elsewhere in the Chicago area, Hoodline reported that a 20,000-square-foot historic Glencoe mansion sold for $17.5 million in July, the highest publicly reported residential sale in the metro area this year.
