A pair of Chicago developers recently received approval to convert a River North office building into apartments, the latest of several such projects taking place in the neighborhood.
The Zoning Board of Appeals gave Honore Properties and Peerless Development approval in late November for a special use that would allow for residential units on the first floor of 50 E. Superior St. The firms plan to convert the entire seven-story building into 88 apartments, along with ground floor retail.
New development has eluded the Superior Street property for years. New York-based firm Symmetry Property Development had plans in 2017 to build a hotel-condominium tower at the site and the property next door, but the deal unraveled by 2024, according to Crain’s Chicago Business.
Michael Shenouda, founder of Honore, said he’d been watching Symmetry Property’s project for years. When the building went up for sale, Shenouda’s firm bid on it.
Affiliates of Honore and Peerless purchased 50 E. Superior St. for $5.7 million earlier this year, property records show.
Honore is working on several residential conversion projects in the city, including one in Lincoln Park and another in the West Loop.
What attracted the firm to the Superior Street property was its large center courtyard, Shenouda said.
“That really is what allows for us to convert it,” he said. “If we didn’t have light coming in from the middle … the floor plate would be too large.”
Office buildings from the Loop to River North are being converted into apartments, as office occupancy still lags behind prepandemic figures. But not every building is suited for apartments. For example, if an office building is too wide, it can result in some apartments having little to no natural light or windows because of how the floors would need to be divided into apartments.
The team is cutting the courtyard’s roof to bring more natural light into the building.
“Even the basement will get natural light,” Shenouda said. “It actually makes that area usable.”
The basement will become an amenity floor for residents, with party and workout rooms. Other amenities will include a wellness area, with a possible sauna, and a roof deck, according to Shenouda.
He said the ground floor will have some apartments, in addition to a lobby and retail space. Shenouda and his partners hope bring in a restaurant. Renderings from Kennedy Mann Architecture imagine part of the retail space as a restaurant, but Shenouda said they’re open to other tenants.
The newly-created apartments will be a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom units. Shenouda said the ground-floor units are walk-ups and off the alley and will be Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing, or units with lower rents but not subsidized by any federal programs.
Demolition work is already underway. The developers expect to have their construction permit in “the next few weeks,” Shenouda said, and complete the project in spring 2027.
“Some of these [office] buildings are just a little obsolete, and you’re able to buy them at a fairly substantial discount,” Shenouda said. “Then we turn it into something that the city, honestly, just really needs. Rents have been growing very aggressively. Chicago, in particular, has … the best rent growth in the country right now, and that’s because we don’t have enough housing.”
Several other River North conversion projects have been pitched recently. Salesforce’s former office in River North, 111 W. Illinois St., will become 153 luxury apartments, and two properties at 116-122 W. Illinois St. will add more than 100 new apartments to the neighborhood.
Chicago-based Concord Capital also pitched conversion plans for 223 W. Erie St., a loft office building in River North.
