Business News
Parkview Lofts and Parkview Commerce, two conjoined development projects at 2159 and 2139 W. Pershing Road, Chicago, moved forward with community outreach at the Wednesday, February 20, meeting of the McKinley Park Development Council. The Parkview projects look to completely overhaul the two massive, vacant Central Manufacturing District buildings currently occupying the properties, filling them with more than 150 apartment residences and over 75,000 square feet of commercial space while retaining the historic presence of the buildings, developers said.
Thomas Brantley, part of the Code Real Estate Partners team shepherding the development, outlined their plan at the council meeting and tallied the two projects' estimated cost of over $60 million. Build-out of the all-residential Parkview Lofts at 2159 W. Pershing would precede construction of Parkview Commerce, its mixed-use neighbor at 2139 W. Pershing Road, Brantley said, with a target construction start date of spring 2020.
Read more: Apartments, Commercial Space Pegged for Parkview Developments on Pershing Road
Kristoffer's Cakes, the new sweets shop at 1735 W. 35th St., continues to wow foodies across the Chicago area with signature tres leches cakes and other treats. The latest media luminary to make the pilgrimage is Steve Dolinsky, also known as the "Hungry Hound" for ABC7 WLS-TV, who recently featured Kristoffer's in a writeup and broadcast video report.
Dolinsky focused on Kristoffer's signature chocoflan cake and also highlighted the history of the business. In addition to the leading video segment and live report, an "extra course" video delves deeper into Kristoffer's array of baked goods.
Three neighborhood enterprises have successfully landed grants from the Small Business Improvement Fund of Chicago's Archer and Western Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District to help improve their properties in 2019. The building for the Aquinas Literacy Center at 1751 W. 35th St., the prospective restaurant space at 1734 W. 35th St. and the Topnotch Silkscreening building at 3382 S. Archer Ave. all were approved by Chicago's Department of Planning and Development for significant funding of their property improvement costs.
Aquinas and property owner Kenneth Ricci stand to get 50 percent of the costs funded toward improving the building's frontage. "Our goal is to improve the facade so it is whole and it energizes the community," said Aquinas Executive Director Alison Altmeyer. In addition to swapping existing siding for brick veneer, the street-facing Aquinas facade will get new storefront elements, including a new door, aluminum framing and double-insulated glass windows.
Read more: Local Enterprises Land Grant Funding Toward Building Improvements
MAT Asphalt LLC, the owner and operator of the recently constructed asphalt plant off Pershing Road and Damen Avenue, has announced two new elements of community outreach: its new website at https://matasphalt.com and an online video that explains its product, business and operations.
"Launching our website and reaching out to our neighbors to tell our story are just two ways we are demonstrating our openness to McKinley Park and our pride in the cleanliness and safety of our operations," said plant co-owner Michael Tadin Jr. "We have an open-door policy with the community."
Read more: MAT Asphalt Reaches Out to Community with Website, Video
The McKinley Park Neighborhood Plan is now online! Click here to read the plan.The McKinley Park Development Council continued its work toward a comprehensive neighborhood plan at a first-of-its-kind business focus group on Wednesday, September 19, at the 36Squared Business Incubator. Working with support of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP), the event drew dozens of local business owners and operators who shared their concerns, priorities and ideas for the community in order to inform the neighborhood plan, a project the council won from CMAP in 2017.
This event was the first of its kind for the McKinley Park neighborhood, which has never enjoyed collaborative business networking or a business-specific support group. In the same manner as the neighborhood plan's resident-focused conclave this past July, smaller breakout groups used oversized maps of the community area to note neighborhood assets, highlight areas of concern and write up their ideas for improvements.
Read more: Development Council Advances Neighborhood Planning at Business Focus Group
