The City of Chicago has issued a new-construction permit for a four-story building with three condominium units at 636 West Aldine Avenue in Lake View East, clearing the way for yet another teardown-to-condo project on the neighborhood's residential streets. The permit, dated Thursday, carries a reported cost of $932,029 and arrived 22 days after the property owner filed its application.
According to Chicago YIMBY, property owner and general contractor EZMB LLC submitted the building application on October 21, and the city signed off on November 12. Real estate records cited by the outlet show EZMB purchased the property this past summer for $1.4 million. The site had already been cleared for redevelopment back in late August, when the city issued a demolition permit for the 1893-built single-family home and its detached frame garage, then addressed as 634 West Aldine, with Builder Luxury named as the demolition contractor at a reported cost of $20,000.
What's Being Built
The approved plans call for a four-story structure with a basement, designed by Hanna Architects, that will hold three residential units. Per the same report, the building is set to feature rear porches on all four above-grade levels connected by a single stairway, along with a rooftop deck topped with a pergola and a stair enclosure. A detached three-car garage is also planned, complete with its own rooftop deck.
The outlet presumes the units will be arranged as a duplex-down occupying the basement and first floor, a simplex on the second level, and a duplex-up spanning the top two floors, and says they are likely to be offered as for-sale condominiums — though neither detail has been confirmed. The article notes it has not verified whether the existing structure has already been razed, and no expected completion date for the new units has been announced.
Part Of A Larger Pattern In Lake View
The Aldine Avenue project lands amid what Hoodline has described as a broader, active trend across Chicago's North Side, particularly in Lakeview, of century-old homes giving way to higher-density luxury condominiums — a pattern visible in Hoodline's recent coverage of a 120-year-old greystone at 3423 N. Janssen Avenue, which is being replaced by a new three-flat designed by Michael Cox & Associates. That same report also pointed to a four-story, three-unit permit issued September 21 for 917 W. Fletcher Street, featuring rear decks, a second-level front deck, and a rooftop deck.
Hanna Architects, the firm behind the Aldine Avenue plans, has its name attached to several other Lake View projects moving through the pipeline. The firm designed the residential development at 665 West Sheridan Road in Lake View East, which received Chicago Plan Commission approval and was cleared to break ground in October, with the team anticipating a 12-to-14-month construction timeline through December 2027, per Chicago YIMBY. That five-story, roughly 65-foot building is slated for 19 residential units — 17 two-bedroom layouts and two three-bedroom layouts — with no on-site parking but 20 stacked bike racks along the rear alley, at a reported project cost of roughly $8.5 million.
Other Aldine Avenue And Ashland Avenue Activity
Just down the street, the city issued a permit on October 20, 2025, for a separate condo project at 514 West Aldine Avenue, also designed by Hanna Architects. That permit reported a construction cost of $2,207,250 for a four-story, 47-foot-high elevator building with a basement and rooftop deck containing four planned units. Elsewhere in Lake View, a proposed eight-unit, four-story residential building at 3909 N. Ashland Avenue received both demolition and new-construction permits, with a reported new-construction cost of $2.4 million and a $20,000 demolition cost, according to Hoodline's prior reporting. That project reportedly grew from an earlier application filed in November 2024 that had called for a smaller, four-unit building on the same site.
For now, the 636 West Aldine Avenue project remains in its earliest stages, with permitting complete but construction status and a completion timeline still unannounced.
