This from Dennis McGuire, Jr.:
Engine 108’s old house on Lipps.
Excerpts from bookclubchicago.org:
Lake Effect Brewing Company’s planned move to a historic Jefferson Park firehouse has been scrapped, but the brewer still plans to open a taproom nearby.
Lake Effect Brewing partnered with developer Ambrosia Homes in 2016 with plans to open its first taproom and kitchen on the ground floor of a vacant firehouse at 4841 N. Lipps Ave. Last year, the city council agreed to sell the firehouse, built in 1906, to Ambrosia Homes for $1. Nine rental loft apartments were planned on the floors above. The $2.4 million development was scheduled to be completed by this summer, but the city has been slow to approve needed permits.
The location was approved for a zoning change in 2020 and a liquor sales ban was lifted along the street last year, but with the clock ticking on Lake Effect’s current space at 4727 W. Montrose Ave., the brewery owner said he couldn’t wait any longer. The brewery’s lease is up at the end of the year, and the timeline for the firehouse project remains uncertain. After looking at several empty buildings along the Northwest Side that had the correct zoning and liquor moratorium rules, Lake Effect secured an Avondale storefront this month and plans to move operations in the next few months.
The firehouse development is still moving forward despite delays and is waiting for the city to approve small rendering changes with hopes that construction can begin later this summer. The developer will add a third floor to the firehouse for apartments, which needs to be completed before any work can begin on the ground floor.
If construction can begin later this summer, tenants could move into the apartments by summer 2023.
#1 by Chuck on July 14, 2022 - 10:26 AM
I’d be willing to bet money with this structure vacant and with the Northwestern Business College building next to it vacant (although the CTA appears to be renting some sort of space in it,) that both of these buildings will eventually be torn down for new construction. The footprint of those lots is just too inviting for a developer. And the densities they have proposed for other vacant properties in the neighborhood (like the old Cowhey Materials property directly across Ainslie,) have just been ridiculous.