Crain's Chicago Business
Nov 03, 2021
Lexington Homes bought the site, which faces both School and Melrose streets, after the
demise of another developer's plan to build 28 townhouses there to replace an old industrial
building.
Lexington Homes bought the site, which faces both School and Melrose streets, after the
demise of another developer's plan to build 28 townhouses there to replace an old industrial
building
A prolific Chicago developer plans to build a dozen new houses priced at $2 million and up
on a former industrial site in Lakeview.
About the size of 13 standard Chicago residential lots, the site housed Craftsman Plating &
Tinning for at least four decades. A developer’s 2019 plan to build 28 townhouses on the site
fell apart earlier this year, according to the website of Ald. Tom Tunney, 44th.
In June, the City Council’s committee on zoning, landmarks and building standards voted to
downzone the property to accommodate 12 single-family houses. The site, 41,000 square
feet, has street frontage on both School Street and Melrose Street on the block west of
Racine Avenue.
Lexington Homes bought the site in October for an amount that does not yet appear in public
records. Jeff Benach, Lexington principal, declined to divulge the price. The old Craftsman
building, a one-story brick structure, had already been demolished at the time of the
purchase.
Designed by the Evanston firm Michael Hershenson Architects, the houses will be offered in
two models, roughly 4,200 and 5,000 square feet, Benach said. The rendering, which he
emphasized is preliminary, shows three-story homes, each with a brick and stone facade and
a mansard roof. The houses will also have rooftop decks and detached garages.
Benach said he expects construction to start on one of each model in early spring 2022. He
said prices will start at $2 million, but that no official sales effort has begun. The first homes
will be ready for occupancy by late 2022.
Lexington’s site is in a part of Lakeview, around Belmont and Racine avenues, where at least
13 houses have sold in the $2 million range in the past two years, but there’s now only one
house listed in that range, according to Crain’s research in real estate records. That is, there
may be unmet demand for $2 million homes in the neighborhood.
It’s new territory for Benach, both geographically and on price.
Although Chicago-based Lexington has been around for two generations and has built
numerous homes everywhere from Bridgeport to Warrenville, Benach said neither he nor his
father has ever built in Lakeview. The highest-priced homes he’s done to date are in
Glenview, where prices are in the $1.1 million to $1.4 million range.
DENNIS RODKIN
