Seven-story building proposed for Edgebrook

A proposed seven-story building in Downtown Edgebrook, the opening of two businesses at the Jefferson Park CTA Terminal and the search for a new tenant at the former site of the Blue Angel restaurant are among development projects in the area.

A 12,000-square-foot site at 5408-16 W. Devon Ave. is being targeted for a seven-story building with ground-floor retail space and 24 apartments on the upper floors. Plans call for 24 parking spaces for residents at the rear of the property with no designated parking for commercial tenants.

The site is occupied by a one-story building that has several vacant storefronts which had the Al Primo Canto and Subway restaurants as former occupants. That stretch of Devon has had vacancy problems over the past 25 years.

No other buildings in the shopping district are taller than two stories except for the Edgebrook Library. The project was proposed by Akton Realty, 5406 W. Devon Ave.

The 41st Ward Zoning Advisory Board will discuss the proposal at its meeting at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 6, at the Olympia Park fieldhouse, 6566 N. Avondale Ave. A preliminary plan for a similar building at the Devon-Central intersection was presented to former alderman Brian Doherty about 10 years ago, but the plan was not submitted to the advisory board.

Alderman Mary O’Connor said that more details about the project will be available at the meeting and that she has concerns about the project, including the height of the building. Akton’s proposal will be the second item on the meeting’s agenda, which includes a plan to convert the office space in a building at 7240 W. Devon Ave. to residential use.

It also was announced that the CTA has signed leases for a restaurant and a newsstand to open in the Jefferson Park terminal, 4917 N. Milwaukee Ave. A doughnut shop in the terminal closed 2 years ago, and a newspaper and magazine shop closed last December.

Butterfield Kitchen, a Wilmette catering company, has signed 10-year leases to operate 500-square-foot restaurants at both the Jefferson Park and Roosevelt CTA stations. They will serve made-to-order meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner and offer homemade sausage, panini sandwiches, scones, muffins and an organic blend of coffee.

“The foot traffic and both locations are very attractive to us as we grow our business,” Butterfield culinary director Nathan Porter.” The monthly rent is $3,041 at Jefferson Park and $2,583 at Roosevelt, with annual increases of 3 percent.

Also on the Northwest Side, Finnegan’s Bar and Eatery, 5310 N. Milwaukee Ave., closed last week after being open for less than a year, and for lease signs were posted on the building. The Irish pub had replaced the Blue Angel, which operated on the site for many y ears.

Significant renovations to the building were made, including the addition of a large bar, and a variety of bands played at Finnegan’s. The owners of Finnegan’s also had managed the Blue Angel, and in 2011 some of the operators of Finnegan opened a drug treatment facility at 5318 W. Lawrence Ave., which closed last year after the state revoked its license.

Also, Blockbuster Video, 4640 W. Irving Park Road, will close in a few weeks because the store lost its lease. Blockbuster had two stores in the Six Corners shopping district for many years, but its store near Milwaukee and Belle Plaine avenues closed several years ago.

Blockbuster, which is owned by Dish Network, is closing about 300 stores nationwide as the company has lost a large portion of its business to Netflix and other companies.