Real Estate

Buildout Officially Beginning at Former Abbott Hotel

The old SRO on Belmont Avenue was vacated and approved for an interior demolition, but now the real construction can truly begin.

After vacating the final three residents in May, the former Abbott Hotel will soon start its transformation into a new apartment building in the heart of Lake View and Boystown.

A construction permit recently filed with the City of Chicago details an estimated $420,000 buildout at the 84-room building. Sitting at 721 W. Belmont Ave., the Abbott Hotel was once a single-room occupancy hotel home to about 100 low-income individuals.

Construction to turn around the building began in May when crews demolished the existing walls, doors, windows and plumbing fixtures on the first four stories. That phase was excepted to cost $45,000, according to city permits.

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However, that’s a drop in the bucket compared the $4.3 million BJB Partners LLC paid for the building in August of 2012. The acquisition was deemed controversial by many hoping to keep more affordable housing in Lake View. 

BJB’s Principal Jamie Purcell has a history of securing and rehabbing SRO housing units, as he recently did with the Sheffield House at 3834 N. Sheffield Ave. and the Bel-Air Hotel, 424 W. Diversey Ave. BJB is also the new owner of the Chateau Hotel on North Broadway, another SRO being gut-rehabbed. 

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Activisits with the Lakeview Action Coalition protested the purchase and relocation of Abbott’s residents, as they did multiple times when Chateau was purchased. They say the disappearing SROs on the North Side leave low-income residents with few places to turn.


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