Nearly five years after a caisson permit was issued to begin construction on a seven-story Edgewater condo building, a new developer has received permission to try again on the same parcel. On July 17, Variable Properties LLC got a permit for a five-story, 24-unit residential project at 6027 North Kenmore Avenue, where a 2017 demolition laid waste to one of the last surviving homes by John Lewis Cochran. The permit had been pending in the Chicago Data Portal since March 13, and it came through with a reported cost of $2.7 million.
Site context of 6027 North Kenmore Avenue, via Google Maps
Variable Properties will be their own general contractor for the new building, with designs done in house by Vari Architects. The permit calls for a basement level, at least one deck on the roof with a stair enclosure and elevator penthouse, and rear balconies. A trash enclosure will be built at the back of the lot, but no garage or surface parking spaces are mentioned.
Photo by Daniel Schell
The Cochran home on the property, most recently occupied by Chicago House’s TransLife Center, was sold to a developer in February 2017. They got a demolition permit for the property on the 28th of that month, and immediately had the building razed. In August 2021, a caisson permit allowed them to start working on a seven-story building with 15 residential units; a full permit with a reported cost of $4.5 million followed two months later, on October 7, 2021. However, work never got underway.
6027 North Kenmore by Edgewater developer John Lewis Cochran, via Google Street View, circa October 2014
A concrete slab at the alley that used to hold a frame garage and a pair of surface parking spaces remains on the lot, and some of the old foundation can be seen through all that overgrowth, as well as in the most recent Google Street View images. It is unlikely but possible that another demolition permit will be required to tear up those remnants. That should be within the capabilities of an excavator once foundation work begins.
From the alley. Photo by Daniel Schell
Concrete slab and jungle. Photo by Daniel Schell
Local transit options, via Google Maps
Residents of 6027 North Kenmore Avenue will live within three-block walks of the Granville Red Line platform to the northwest and the Thorndale platform to the southwest. CTA stops for Route 136, 147, and 151 buses can be found one block east along North Sheridan Road, and #36 buses stop two blocks west on North Broadway.
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With that much “jungle” they might need a wildlife assessment to make sure no endangered species is being displaced. LOL
I always figured that is why large swats are not cleared and seeded with prairie grass, like the Lincoln Yards plots.
The Lincoln Yards plots HAVE been seeded with prairie grasses & native plants as part of the soil remediation that was required for the properties. You can see this on the Foundry Park portion if you’re walking across the Cortland Bridge. There also were portal windows along Throop where you could see some of this growth on the southern portion where the “park” was originally planned to be built, but I have not been on that stretch in a few months.
That’s a shame they reduced it from seven stories to five stories. But at least they are building something (hopefully).