LITTLE ITALY — With a new library and mixed-income housing set to go up on Taylor Street, one developer said it's the perfect time to build.
Construction started this week on a mixed-use building at 1335 W. Taylor St., across from the planned Roosevelt Library and CHA apartments.
Replacing a decade-old vacant lot between a smoke shop and the home of Scafuri Bakery and Sweet Maple Cafe, the four-story masonry building will have ground-floor retail and three residential units on the floors above.
CS Partners bought the foreclosed lot in 2015 for $315,000, but its plans were put on hold while developers wrapped up several other projects outside the city, said developer John Capesius, who owns the company with his brother and a third partner.
Construction began this week on a new mixed-use building at 1335 W. Taylor St. [DNAinfo/Dave Newbart]
But as the city prepares to break ground on the $36 million, seven-story library and public housing complex in the next three months, Capesius said it's the perfect time to build.
"Developers like ourselves are very excited about what's going on in the area," Capesius said Thursday. "It's a very dense area, we have six hospital campuses, UIC and all the culture that goes along with Little Italy."
As Italians who live in the suburbs, Capesius said he and his brother appreciate the history of Little Italy and ideally hope to add to its growth with a new restaurant on their building's first floor, which "lends itself well to a restaurant scenario."
A new mixed-use building will replace an empty lot across from the future Roosevelt library on Taylor Street. [Provided/John Capesius]
Above the eatery, three-bedroom units, likely condos, will measure around 1,850 square feet and feature balconies and access to a rooftop deck, Capesius said.
The building will be "just really beautiful," he said. "Something Taylor Street hasn't seen before."
The aging neighborhood is in need of new infrastructure, Capesius said. He said he sees the mixed-income housing planned for the massive Roosevelt Square redevelopment will likely have a better outcome than the city's high-rises that led to a discrimination lawsuit and plagued nearby streets with violence.
"It's a much better situation, and we have to support affordable housing," Capesius said. "Of course, there's always going to be pushback, but we look at this as a very good thing for the community."
Construction is expected to take about six months, readying the building for occupants in the spring.
