Two aging three-story buildings, a vacant lot, and a parking lot at the corner of West Erie Street and North Milwaukee Avenue are set to come down to make way for a 48-unit apartment building in River West. The project, led by developer Bachula Development, just cleared a major hurdle after the Chicago City Council rezoned the site from industrial to residential use.
According to Chicago YIMBY, the site at 940-942 West Erie Street will be developed with a residential structure designed by 360 Design Studio. Chicago YIMBY describes the building as six stories, while Urbanize Chicago reports seven. The Chicago City Council Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards recommended approval to rezone the parcel from an M1-3 Limited Manufacturing District to a DR-5 Downtown Residential District on September 22, as reported by ZoneWire. The City Council approved the development. The wedge-shaped parcel, which also carries the address 660-662 North Milwaukee Avenue, sits within Chicago's 27th Ward, per the same outlet.
The rezoning changes the property's designation from an M1-3 Limited Manufacturing District to a DR-5 Downtown Residential District. That change clears the way for the proposed residential development.
What's Actually Getting Built
Plans call for 48 residential units spread across the new building, including 17 one-bedroom and 31 two-bedroom apartments ranging from 670 to around 1,100 square feet, according to Chicago YIMBY. Every unit will come with a private inset balcony, and three ground-floor units will feature their own small terraces. Floor plans show those three ground-floor apartments facing Erie Street and Milwaukee Avenue, with a residential lobby tucked behind them, while upper floors will each hold nine apartments, according to Urbanize Chicago.
Ten of the 48 units will be set aside as affordable housing — a requirement tied to Chicago's updated Affordable Requirements Ordinance. The 2021 policy mandates that residential developments with 10 or more units receiving a zoning change set aside up to 20% of total units at affordable rates, according to the City of Chicago Department of Housing. At 84 feet tall, the building will be clad in different-tone bricks accented by metal panels, per Chicago YIMBY's reporting, and a shared rooftop deck will serve as the project's lone additional amenity — the development team has no other extras planned.
Parking Takes a Back Seat to Bikes
Two small parking garages on the ground floor and basement will hold 24 vehicle spaces, but the building leans hard into bike infrastructure instead. Architectural plans incorporate 52 bicycle parking spaces, with bike storage on the ground floor, a figure Urbanize Chicago reports is meant to serve transit-oriented commuters along North Milwaukee Avenue.
That bike-heavy approach tracks with the site's transit access. The property sits roughly a six-minute walk, about 0.3 miles, from the CTA Blue Line's Grand station and is directly adjacent to the Milwaukee & Erie CTA bus stop, according to transit data compiled by Moovit. For a developer betting on car-light living in a rapidly densifying stretch of River West, that proximity to rapid transit is central to the pitch.
A Neighborhood Transformed by a Casino Next Door
Bachula Development, which operates commercially as BD Group, is a Chicago-based firm with a track record of ground-up residential projects and general contracting work in neighborhoods including Lake View and Lincoln Park. The 940 West Erie Street project now moves toward permitting and construction, though no construction timeline has been revealed, Chicago YIMBY reports.
The project lands in a River West submarket already reshaped by one of the city's largest commercial bets. The neighborhood is under significant development pressure driven in part by the nearby $1.7 billion Bally's Chicago Casino complex at 777 West Chicago Avenue, which began permanent site construction in 2025 and is projected to open in 2027, as Hoodline previously reported. That casino project has faced its own financial turbulence, underscoring how much is riding on River West's continued residential growth to support the broader investment pouring into the corridor.
The push for projects like 940 West Erie Street also fits into a citywide housing supply problem. Chicago issued just 1.36 housing unit permits per 1,000 residents in 2023, trailing the average of 4.71 permits per 1,000 residents across the nine other largest U.S. cities during the same period, according to research from the Illinois Policy Institute. Small-to-medium infill projects like this one, threading transit access and affordability mandates into a single wedge-shaped lot, represent one piece of the city's broader struggle to add housing fast enough.
