Real Estate & Development News
Marz Community Brewing Co. opens its tap room this Saturday, February 24, having recently received licenses from the City of Chicago for on-premises alcohol consumption, liquor to go and retail food sales. The brewery, on the eastern edge of the McKinley Park neighborhood at 3630 S. Iron St., announced it will open the new venue from noon to 10 p.m. on Saturday and also release a new beer that afternoon.
After waiting nearly a year since filing license applications with the City of Chicago, the brewery received approval on February 14 from the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection. The three business licenses — for package goods, a retail food establishment and incidental alcohol consumption — run until February 15, 2020, and are a compulsory component of launching the tap room.
Read more: Marz Community Brewing Opening Tap Room This Weekend
The family business of C&J Auto Parts is closing after over 65 years at its current location at 3200 S. Archer Ave. This Saturday, February 3, will be the last chance for customers to shop on the final day of C&J's going-out-of-business sale, ending the work that ran through four generations of the Zalon family.
"It's bittersweet," said business owner Arnold Zalon, who spent much of his early childhood growing up above the family auto shop on Archer Avenue. "We've had so many good customers and made so many friends, including some employees who have been with us for 20 or 30 years."
Read more: Final Days at C&J Auto Parts Portend New Development, Neighborhood Changes
The McKinley Park Community Garden is set to return to after over a year's hiatus from planting, weeding and harvesting at the popular neighborhood spot. Now assigned a new, permanent home on the Chicago Park District land "between the Damens," the garden will no longer face uncertainty about its future with each growing season.
The cadre of volunteers who run the garden gathered this past Sunday to finalize plans for 2018. One main event will be a full-day garden build-out on Saturday, April 14, to construct the new garden beds and site layout. Sign-ups for plots should begin on February 26, said garden volunteer Kara Breems, with a kick-off meeting for gardeners slated for Saturday, March 17.
Read more: Community Garden Returning this Spring to New, Permanent Home
The iconic shark on the rooftop will return along with a fully refurbished and expanded restaurant at La Palapa, the bustling Mexican seafood eatery on Damen Avenue just north of Archer Avenue. The restaurant, which celebrates its 10th anniversary on February 14, is in the midst of a construction overhaul that will eventually grow the building to two stories while retaining its popular Nayarit-style recipes and beachy, casual vibe.
"It was always a struggle with the old facilities," said owner Alejandro "Alex" Guerra. "Now, our customers are going to be comfortable."
1 commentsRead more: La Palapa Undergoing Major Expansion to Building and Restaurant
The City of Chicago is soliciting the rehabilitation of a large area of the Central Manufacturing District with an outreach to developers via C40’s Reinventing Cities design competition. Three large city-owned lots are on the table for sale and innovative, environmentally friendly redevelopment, including over a million square feet of floor space in historically significant buildings.
The properties, stretching from 1717 to 1819 West Pershing Road, this week received the go-ahead from a city panel to offer them to developers. This process is tied to the international design competition, for which proposals are due May 4, 2018.
Read more: Central Manufacturing District Properties Get Push From City via Design Contest
