346 units okayed for Six Corners as labor agreement finalized; Portage Park car wash also approved

by BRIAN NADIG

A 346-unit apartment complex and a car wash were among the Portage Park area development projects approved at the Sept. 17 meeting of the City Council Zoning Committee.

The committee had delayed the redevelopment proposal for the Peoples Gas site at 3955 N. Kilpatrick Ave. on six occasions due to reported labor agreement issues, but at today’s meeting it was approved with little fanfare.

Alderman James Gardiner (45th) had urged developer GW Properties to sign a project labor agreement, and this summer the developer and the Chicago and Cook County Building and Construction Trades Council along with representatives of 21 unions signed the agreement, and Gardiner issued a letter of support for the project.

“This has been a work in progress,” committee chair Alderman Bennet Lawson (44th) said at the end of the hearing.

A union representative testified that the labor agreement grants “significant, robust worker protections” and means that union members would be used for the project’s construction. He added that projects with a PLA are “20 percent” more likely to be completed on time and that other nearby projects, including the 10-story Clarendale senior living building at 4715 W. Irving Park Road, were built under PLAs.

“It’s a win for the community,” he said.

GW co-founder Mitch Goltz said that he signed a similar agreement before the July 16 committee meeting, but the matter was still deferred.

At the September meeting, representatives of the Portage Park Chamber of Commerce and the Old Irving Park Association testified in favor of the development.

Chamber executive director Michael Giordano said that the project is “one of the final pieces in the redevelopment of Six Corners, (once) known as the Downtown of the Northwest Side,” and that project’s 346 apartments would help bring customers to existing businesses.

Association board member Adrienne Chan said that her organization worked with GW for several years on formulating the current proposal. “We’re excited about the existing plan,” Chan said.

The proposal calls for several one-story commercial buildings along Irving Park, and a five-story apartment complex, with some six-level sections, in the rear of the property. It will include 69 affordable (reduced rent) housing units, 125 parking spaces for commercial tenants, 205 spaces for residential tenants and 27 spaces for visitors to the apartments.

Construction could start in the middle of 2025, according to Goltz.

Also at the meeting, the committee approved rezoning a former car dealership lot at 5553-57 W. Irving Park Road from B1-1 to C2-1 to allow for an automatic car wash. Environmental remediation will be required before construction can start.

Several years ago a Starbucks Coffee was planned for the site, but it was never built. The parcel is located across from Portage Park, 4100 N. Long Ave.

Alderwoman Ruth Cruz (30th), her zoning advisory board and the Portage Park Chamber have supported the car wash proposal.

The committee also approved rezoning a property at 3520-22 N. Pulaski Road in the 30th Ward from B3-1 to B2-3 to allow for the construction of a three-story structure with eight residential units and six on-site parking spaces. The existing commercial building on the site would be demolished.

The committee also okayed a proposal in the 38th Ward to rezone from B3-1 to B2-2 a property at 6014-16 W. Addison St. in order to legalize a ground-floor residential unit in the existing two-unit, two-story structure.

Also on the Northwest Side, in the 33rd Ward, the committee approved a proposal to rezone a parcel at 3316-18 W. Montrose Ave. from B3-1 to B2-3 to permit the construction of a four-story building with 25 units and 17 parking spaces.

The full council is expected to vote on these matters at its Sept. 18 meeting.

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