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Wicker Park Central Furniture Mart Sells for $3.75M to Saxony Capital

By Alisa Hauser | August 1, 2014 12:10pm | Updated on August 4, 2014 7:45am
 After 65 years, the owners of Central Furniture Mart at 1348-50 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Wicker Park sold their building and are headed to Humboldt Park.
After 65 years, the owners of Central Furniture Mart at 1348-50 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Wicker Park sold their building and are headed to Humboldt Park.
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DNAinfo/Alisa Hauser

WICKER PARK —   A prominent three-story corner building that was home to a family-owned furniture shop for 65 years was sold to a Downtown developer for $3.75 million, it was announced Friday.

Baum Realty vice presidents Danny Spitz, Greg Dietz and Janika Brenner worked on the sale, which was "a private off-market deal" under contract since September, Spitz said.

The deal, which closed Wednesday, had been so long in the pipeline to allow Central Furniture Mart's owners Michael Jacobson and vice president Ricardo DaSilva time to move their business, which relocated to 4141 W. North Ave. in Humboldt Park.

Reached by phone Friday, buyer Joshua Mintzer, president of Saxony Capital, said he is currently "weighing options" on what to do with the 35,000 square-foot property at 1348-52 N. Milwaukee Ave., which he described as "a great building with great visibility."

"We were thinking of doing residential duplex lofts on the second and third floors with ground-floor retail but also have had a couple parties interested in taking the entire building, from soft good retail to bars and restaurants, so we are being patient and holding off on making any decisions," Mintzer said.

Mintzer added, "We are going to be patient because first and foremost we want to make sure whatever we do is in keeping with the neighborhood."

Wednesday's deal is the second local real estate acquisition for Mintzer, who worked with Baum Realty to buy two buildings at 1308-10 N. Milwaukee Ave. for $2.4 million in February.

There, Mintzer is planning to renovate the storefronts and lofts above a nail salon and resale clothing shop.

Spitz said a spurt of other recent local developments — including the recasting of a shopping mall complex into the Wicker Park Commons, where a A Pet Supplies Pus is scheduled to open next Friday — are signs that the 1200 and 1300 blocks of North Milwaukee Avenue are "well and alive again" after a halt caused by economic downturn.

In the same block, a row of old buildings at 1237-53 N. Milwaukee Ave. sold for $3.35 million in December to LG Development Group, which is planning a seven-story, 58-unit apartment building.

Spitz described Division Street and North Avenue as "the bookends for Milwaukee Avenue."

Across from Antique Taco, Central Furniture Mart is squarely between both "bookends."

"Finally the street is squeezing toward the middle and filling in," Spitz said.