‘Triangle Square’ sets its sights on Chicago’s North Branch Corridor

A three-building development proposed for a vacant, wedge-shaped lot at the corner of Elston and Webster avenues in the city’s evolving North Branch Corridor is moving forward. According to Crain’s, developer Belgravia Group is preparing to launch sales for the condo portion of the multiphase project, known as Triangle Square.

Priced from $495,000 to $1 million, the 66 for-sale units will be joined by an adjacent nine-story, 300-unit rental building and a two-story commercial structure containing ground floor retail with offices above. The $200 million development was approved by the Chicago Plan Commission in September.

Fronting Webster Avenue, Triangle Square’s condos will feature a somewhat traditional brick and glass exterior from architecture firm Sullivan Goulette & Wilson. The project’s next-door apartments, designed by Lamar Johnson Collaborative, will take a more angular, contemporary shape as it wrapped around a central landscaped courtyard.

Both residential buildings are expected to break ground in mid 2019 and open in 2021. The commercial building at the corner will be built last. Belgravia Group is under contract to purchase the vacant 4-acre parcel from a venture of Fred Eychaner’s Newsweb Corp., according to Chicago Block Club. The transaction is expected to go through next month.

Triangle Square represents one of the first major residential projects for the North Branch Corridor—an area straddling Bucktown and Lincoln Park—since a series of zoning changes last summer cleared a path for new, non-industrial uses. Its developer describes the area, which also contains the future site of the proposed Lincoln Yards megaproject, as “East Bucktown” on its website.

While it remains to be seen if Chicagoans will fully embrace the name, it is clear that the North Branch Corridor will look very different in the coming years as new developments like Lincoln Yards, C. H. Robinson’s new HQ, and the Salt District take shape and longtime staples like General Iron and Stanley’s Fresh Fruits & Vegetables prepare to leave.

• At rezoned North Branch project, condo sales are on [Crain’s]
• Three-building project pitched for triangular North Branch site [Curbed Chicago]
• Triangle Square [website]