LOGAN SQUARE — Crews razed a shuttered car wash and six-unit apartment building at 2342-48 N. California Ave. this week to make way for a "micro-apartment" luxury development that has been in the works for more than three years.
A worker at the demolition site [DNAinfo/Mina Bloom]
The six-story, transit-oriented development calls for 138 "micro-apartments," including $1,200 studios offering an average of 439 square feet of space and $1,400 one-bedrooms offering an average of 537 square feet of space.
The original plan for the site was to build 52 units, but after receiving approval by the city's Plan Commission in March 2015, the developer — Savoy Development — came back to the community with an expanded plan for the now 138-unit project.
Through months of conflict between the landlord, the tenants who were being evicted and 1st Ward Ald. Joe Moreno, the project came to represent the larger gentrification struggle in Logan Square.
It all started in September, when the remaining three families living on the site vowed to fight the project, arguing that it's impossible to find replacement affordable housing in the neighborhood.
It dragged on when tenant organizers took issue with the move-out date and landlord Francisco Macias rejected their demands. The alderman then stepped in and said he would block the development if an agreement was not reached.
Later that month, the tenants and Macias reached an agreement, and Moreno endorsed the micro-apartments.
