A single-story masonry building at 2014 West Belle Plaine Avenue in North Center is coming down, clearing the way for a five-story, 15-unit apartment building with ground-floor retail. The City of Chicago approved 2014 Belle Plaine Holdings LLC's demolition application on Thursday, November 12, setting the stage for a project that has been quietly working its way through the permitting process since summer.
According to Chicago YIMBY, a permit to erect a new masonry building on the site has been pending in the Chicago Data Portal since August 10, and the pending permit specifies the project as a mixed-use apartment building. The outlet reports that 2014 Belle Plaine Holdings LLC applied to tear down the existing structure, which countyoffice.org records indicate was erected in 1916.
What's Planned for the Site
Plans drawn up by Michael Cox & Associates call for retail space, bicycle parking, and a seven-car garage on the ground floor, per the same report. The three upper floors are expected to feature rear metal decks, and the ground level is also set to include a patio and iron-and-wood privacy fencing. A second-floor roof deck will likely be built over part of the garage, though no roof deck is mentioned atop the fifth floor.
Carlos Group is reported as the demolition contractor, with the teardown carrying a reported cost of $20,000. No general contractor has been named in the permit specifications for the new building, the report notes. Notably, there is no vehicular access planned from Belle Plaine Avenue itself — the parking garage will instead be reached through rear alleys from the north off West Warner Avenue.
A Pricey Purchase and a Transit-Friendly Location
The property was purchased by the developer in May for $1.9 million, according to a Coldwell Banker listing cited in the report. The location puts future tenants within reach of several transit options: the site sits about three blocks from the Irving Park Brown Line platform, while north-south Route 50 Damen buses stop just a few yards away at Belle Plaine and Damen Avenues, and east-west Route 80 buses stop one block south at West Irving Park Road. A Divvy bike rack is also located nearby at Belle Plaine and Lincoln.
The site is close to the Northcenter Town Square streetscape plaza, which lies between North Damen and North Lincoln Avenues and which the city completed in 2020.
Another North Center Project Nearby
The Belle Plaine proposal isn't the only multi-unit project moving through the pipeline in North Center. A separate five-story-plus-basement, eight-unit project was permitted at 2353 West Byron Street, as Chicago YIMBY reported. That project, designed by Hanna Architects with Consortian Construction as general contractor, carries a reported cost of $2,182,930 and includes retail space, an eight-car garage, and bicycle storage on the ground floor, with balconies planned for the rear of the residential floors. Its permit came through the Chicago Data Portal on October 7 after a 50-day wait from its August 18 application date.
While the two projects sit blocks apart and share some design features, including ground-floor retail and rear-facing outdoor space, the available information points to two distinct developments rather than any broader pattern across the neighborhood. For now, the Belle Plaine Avenue project remains in the demolition phase, with the five-story building itself still pending final permitting.
