Affordable apartments ready to rise next to Union Park

As Chicago’s West Loop continues to be a hotbed of new construction, more developments are starting to pop up west of Ogden Avenue on the city’s Near West Side. The latest project to take the plunge is a seven-story, mixed-income apartment project replacing a parking lot across from Union Park at the southeast corner of Warren Boulevard and Ashland Avenue.

Approved by the Chicago Plan Commission last June to include 75 affordable and market-rate apartments, the development now calls for a total of 63 studio and one-bedroom mixed-income units, according to a recently issued construction permit. The project at 1533 W. Warren will also provide nearly 1,200 square feet of amenity space and on-site parking for seven vehicles.

The upcoming building comes from Chicago architect Valerio Dewalt Train Associates and developer Heartland Alliance. The latter was behind the conversion of the historic Art Deco hotel at neighboring 1519 W. Warren into the Harvest Commons—an affordable apartment complex with an on-site teaching kitchen and urban farming plot—in 2013.

With no shortage of undeveloped land and a new CTA Green Line station at Damen on the way, Chicago’s Near West Side appears poised for a resurgence.

• New construction permit at 1533 W. Warren Boulevard [Chicago Cityscape]
• Previous Near West Side coverage [Curbed Chicago]