A pair of buildings once home to the Royal George Theatre on North Halsted Street in Lincoln Park are now being demolished for redevelopment. Demolition permits for 1633 and 1649 North Halsted Street were issued October 31, and now that process is underway. The property contained the two-story theatre building, a parking structure, a restaurant space, and a four-story office/commercial building.
1633 North Halsted Street. Photo by Daniel Schell
1641 North Halsted Street (the demo permit uses 1649.) Photo by Daniel Schell
Developer Draper & Kramer is preparing to build a nine-story, 131-unit apartment building on the site, a project approved by the Chicago Plan Commission back in August 2023. The first floor will include 34 parking spaces and about 4,500 square feet of retail/restaurant space, plus storage for 131 bicycles. SGW Architecture & Design created the plans.
A single-story portion of the buildings nestled between the two main structures, and once the home of Balena Italian restaurant, was removed first, with a sidewalk canopy then erected in front of the vacancy. From the alley, demo work can be seen via blue sky visible through the top floor of the four-story 1633 North Halsted. While often lumped in with 1649, which was completed specifically for the theatre in 1984, this appears to be a much older building, possibly a century-plus, though an exact completion date has proven difficult to establish.
This portion of the former Balena restaurant space was the first thing demolished. Image via Google Street View
The Balena space after early demolition…
….now covered by a sidewalk canopy.
Demolition on the top floor of 1633 North Halsted Street. Photo by Daniel Schell
The rear of the theatre complex from the alley. Photo by Daniel Schell
1649 N Halsted Street. Rendering by SGW Architecture & Design
1649 North Halsted Street. Rendering by SGW Architecture & Design
1649 N Halsted Street. Site plan by SGW Architecture & Design
Just around the corner at 750 West North Avenue, work has begun on a five-story, 48-unit residential building. And next door to the theatre complex, a seven-story, 79-unit building that would have removed four structures from 1623 to 1631 North Halsted won Plan Commission approval in October 2020, but that development seems to have fizzled out.
Construction at 750 West North Avenue. Photo by Daniel Schell
Four buildings spanning 1623 to 1631 North Halsted Street, once slated for development. Photo by Daniel Schell
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Curious about the net addition of dwellings in Chicago for 2025? Do we know how many residences, of any type / size were built within city limits and how many were demolished? It would be interesting to know the replacement ratio (which if 1.0 means one built for every unit demolished and if greater than 1.0 that we are adding net dwellings. Extra bonus for any other ratios or details, like condo to rental, SFH to multi-unit, etc… Thank you
Great question! I’ve been thinking about this as well. Also, I wonder specifically how many 2 + bedroom rentals and condos have been added to the residential market within the last year. It’s my understanding that young families/couples planning a family tend to move to the suburbs because of lack of 2 + bedroom rental/condo inventory within Chicago city limits. Obviously, families with school-age children tend to move to suburbs for higher rated school districts.
The four buildings 1623 to 1631 have all been listed for sale (on and off) since early this year. Assume that does put the nail in the coffin for the Oct 2020 plan. I haven’t seen any updates on 1565 N Clybourn in a year either.
Glad the other two are making some progress at least. There’s too much retail vacancy (800 to 1000 North Ave and New City) in the mini suburb feel of this area.
Very excited to see the demolition, this empty boarded up eye sore was making an entire block a pedestrian dead zone. New apartment building will bring some life.
The cybertruck parked in front as a messenger of the future coming haha nice shot.
The four story commerical building could have been an interesting adapative reuse attached to the new building, but we can’t win them all.