Is This Building Next To The Logan Square 'L' Stop About To Become A Hotel?

By Stephen Gossett in News on Aug 30, 2017 8:59PM

After the rise of Airbnb, it seemed as if it were merely matter of time until the neighborhood hotel was "disrupted" right out of existence. But like wristwatches and vinyl, they've actually flourished, especially here in Chicago. With that context, now comes word that a highly coveted property, immediately adjacent to a CTA entrance that serves one of the city's most in-demand 'hoods, could be in the early stages of transforming into a hotel.

Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, whose 35th Ward includes a portion of Logan Square, told DNAinfo that a developer is working on a proposal to build a hotel at the old Grace's Furniture building (2618 N. Milwaukee Ave.), which towers immediately northwest of the south entrance of the Logan Square Blue Line station, right near the Illinois Centennial Monument. Ramirez-Rosa said that a proposal with renderings will be brought to constituents once the plan is more fully developed.

If that property sounds familiar for another reason aside from development desirability and proximity to transit, you're right: it is also in fact the infamous Aloha billboard building, having sported a sky-high ad for the notorious Bradley Cooper/Emma Stone box-office-poison flop for a year after the dud was released. So mocked/loved was the billboard among neighborhood residents that it inspired its own Tumblr and planned party. In fact, a redevelopment for the property may have happened long ago if it weren't for legal squabbles related to the billboard slots that line the side of the building, DNA notes.

If the hotel plan does finally come to fruition, it would join concepts like The Robey in Wicker Park, Ace Hotel in Chicago in the West Loop, and the under-construction Hotel Zachary in Wrigelyville among the in-the-nabe hotel development boom to hit the city in recent years. Just don't try to co-opt Jane Addams in a name; that's already been done.

[H/T DNAinfo]