The CTA Purple Line station house at Main Street, a block from the 801 Main site. Photo: Mudwater, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
A plan to rebuild the vacant city-owned lot at Main Street and Sherman Avenue has grown, with the developer now proposing 72 apartments and 16 for-sale townhomes.
Ald. Jonathan Nieuwsma (4th) told residents at a Tuesday ward meeting that CityPads has submitted a zoning analysis for 801 Main Street, Evanston Now reported. An earlier concept for the same site called for 64 apartments and 15 townhomes.
The parcel is the former Bib N’ Tucker laundromat site. The city bought it last fall for $735,000 with Chicago-Main TIF funds and later tore the building down. In August, the City Council authorized a $1.5 million sale of 801-811 Main Street and 916-918 Sherman Avenue to CityPads III, LLC, under ordinance 192-O-26. The purchase agreement sets the price at $1.5 million. Closing still depends on Council approval of the planned development.
Evanston Now’s August account of the sale said CityPads was the only company that answered the city’s request for proposals, and that the same team built Tapestry Station across the street and is building at 910 Custer Avenue around the corner.
The site plan Nieuwsma shared, as described by Evanston Now, would wrap new buildings around the existing property at 914 Sherman Avenue: a 72-unit apartment building with 14 parking spaces, bike parking and 1,600 square feet of retail along Main Street; 10 three-bedroom, 2.5-bath townhomes with enclosed parking behind it; and six three-bedroom, 1.5-bath units with six enclosed parking spaces farther back. The plans call for 11 of the 72 apartments to be offered at 60% of area median income, listed as $58,320 a year for a household of two, and two of the 16 condominiums at 80% of AMI, listed as $77,800 for a household of two.
The project still has to go through the formal land-use process and win Council approval, so the mix can still change. Nieuwsma told neighbors the lot is in ryegrass now, with sunflowers expected in the spring.
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