WICKER PARK — The owner of a decades-old church that collapsed this past fall now wants to build eight condos at the site of the former Mision Cristiana Church.
On Tuesday night, Igor Blumin, the owner of the corner lot at Schiller Street and Evergreen Avenue and architect John Conrad Schiess, presented preliminary designs to members of the Wicker Park Committee's preservation and development subcommittee in the park's field house, 1425 N. Damen Ave.
Blumin would like to build a 4-story, 4-unit condo building at 1903 W. Schiller St., and four two-story brick duplexes at 1909 and 1911 W. Schiller St.
Shiess told the seven members of the neighborhood group that the designs are not final.
"We are open to feedback," Shiess said.
The stated purpose of the gathering was to discuss a zoning modification that Blumin needs the community to sign off on the project. But the discussion mainly focused on the church's collapse.
Ed Tamminga, chairman of the Wicker Park group's subcommittee said the loss of the church was "unfortunate."
The center of the massive 16,000-square-foot yellow brick building caved in and collapsed just before 6 a.m. last Oct. 24. Neighbors said it "sounded like an earthquake." There were no injuries but several cars parked along Schiller and Evergreen suffered damage.
"It was one of the darkest days of my life and one of the luckiest because we had people working there who were not there at the time," Blumin said, adding, "Only God knows why this church collapsed."
Schiess said, "Let's be clear, no one intentionally knocked this down. Nobody knows what happened. Hopefully, we can move forward."
Reached after the meeting, Bill McCaffrey, a spokesman from the city's Law Department, declined to comment on the outcome of the city's investigation on what caused the church to collapse.
Previously, Blumin said that there was a common wall between two buildings, at 1907 and 1909 West Schiller Street and the partition wall between those two buildings collapsed and caused the roof to cave in and damage the church.
“The City and the owner have agreed on settlement terms regarding the violations at this property, and we will continue our efforts to finalize the settlement agreement. However, we will not comment further until the agreement is completed and signed," McCaffrey said.
Tamminga said that the group sidestepped any commentary on the project but gave verbal support for a zoning refinement needed "because it represents no change in current zoning."
"This is a pretty hot-button issue in the neighborhood. We want to get the local neighbors tied in [to building plans]. There was some affection for the church and the collapse was alarming, it was such a calamity. The neighbors want to avoid any sense that the developers are benefiting from the collapse of the building," Tamminga said.
Blumin bought the church in 2015 with business partner Alex Zdanov from Mision Cristiana Family Ministries.
He originally wanted to rehab the church as two townhomes and two single-family residences.
Initially a church built for Chicago's Serbian community, the building is not listed in a city database of architecturally significant properties, though it is located just across the street from Wicker Park's historic park.
Mision Cristiana Family Ministries "opted out" of being part of Wicker Park's Landmark District when the district was created, thus exempting it from certain laws that prohibit renovations or demolition, Tamminga previously said.
On Wednesday, Tamminga said,"The church in fact is gone and it would be best to now proceed with some appropriate development on this now vacant site."
