Former Kuper Monumental Works to be converted into apartments near Niles-Chicago border on Milwaukee Ave.
by BRIAN NADIG
An 84-year-old industrial building at 6605-15 N. Milwaukee Ave., where gravesite monuments were once made, would be converted into a 14-unit apartment complex under a proposal the Village of Niles could approve this week.
The development site is located just to the north of the Chicago-Niles border and between the Regency Nursing Center, 6631 N. Milwaukee Ave., and Ridgewood Gardens, 6569 N. Milwaukee Ave.
The site was home to Kuper Monumental Works until the 1970s, and it is believed that a member of the Kuper family lived in a house built on the property in the early 1940s, according to the Village of Niles planner Nathan Bruemmer. An old advertisement for Kuper promoted that it makes “artistic” cemetery monuments.
In more recent years Amark Industries Janitor Supplies, Holt Sales and Alan Manufacturing operated in the now-vacant two-story industrial building, a small portion of which is one-story.
The proposal calls for the masonry building to be retrofitted into two-bedroom apartments and for a small two-story addition to be constructed at the rear of the site, Bruemmer said.
In addition, a new landscaped courtyard would be installed along Milwaukee toward the north end of the site, where there currently is a small parking lot.
The zoning code requires 28 parking spaces for the project, but the proposal calls for a total of 23 spaces, pending approval of a variation for a parking reduction. The parking would be located at the south end of the site, where the existing house would be demolished.
The Niles Planning and Zoning Board at its Aug. 16 meeting voted to recommend parking, setback, landscaping and loading space variations for the project. It also recommended a special use to allow for multi-family construction under the site’s C-3 zoning.
The Board of Trustees at its Aug. 24 meeting is expected to accept the recommendations and approve the project. The project’s applicant is Paul Mulvey.
(Photo by Rob Mandik)
