Grace’s Furniture Building Developers Get $3 Million To Revive Logan Square Gym Plan

LOGAN SQUARE — A redevelopment project for the historic Grace’s Furniture building in the heart of Logan Square is back on the table after getting city funding.

Plans to redevelop the building at 2616-18 N. Milwaukee Ave. into a mixed-use project with Logan Square Athletic Club as its anchor tenant is getting revived after receiving a $3 million Community Development Grant from the Department of Planning and Development, said Ald. Anthony Quezada (35th) and department officials who announced the news Wednesday morning.

The four-story gym would be called the Logan Square Athletic Club and would operate under the Chicago Athletic Club brand, which has several locations in the city, including in Bucktown, Lincoln Park and the West Loop. A restaurant and cafe is planned for the first floor.

The total rehab project is expected to cost $11 million, city officials said.

Quezada has been working with the city and neighborhood groups to move the project forward since he became alderman last year. The project has been delayed numerous times, in part because of the pandemic and funding challenges. Quezada, Logan Square Preservation and Palenque wrote letters of support for the grant application.

The funding injection is a big win for the building and neighborhood, Quezada said.

“Grace’s Furniture been vacant for 20 years and community members have long commented that it’s been considered an eyesore,” Quezada told Block Club. “This redevelopment project is an incredibly welcomed investment in the community.”

A community benefits agreement made with the developers, Quezada and the neighborhood groups include preserving the building’s vintage sign and restoring the facade, hiring locally to bring more jobs to residents who will be paid a living wage and offering affordable gym rates for residents of the Lucy Gonzalez Parsons Apartments across the street.

Financial support and water access for volunteers who manage the Paseo Prairie Gardens next to the building are also part of the final agreement, the alderman and zoning attorney Rolando Acosta, who represents the developers, said.

“Volunteers of that garden have long struggled without having direct water, and some would bring water in buckets from their homes,” Quezada said. “Now they will be able to use the water there.”

Acosta meanwhile described Logan Square Preservation as having “been critical in moving this project along.”

Andy Schneider, president of Logan Square Preservation, said his group is “over the moon” to finally see the project move forward and that the vintage sign, which has been there since the 1920s, will be restored.

“The project will be a beautiful wall of windows overlooking the square and a beautiful complement to the redesign,” Schneider said. “It will speak to the language of the square and the restored blade sign will speak to the commercial corridor.”

The development will be funded through the city’s Housing and Economic Development bond and is part of 56 citywide projects getting city assistance totaling $148 million through a variety of funding sources, per planning department officials.

Blue Star Properties and Marc Realty, the two development groups that have tried to redevelop the building since at least 2019, when the first iteration of the proposal got City Council approval, are still behind the overhaul, with Larry Weiner of Marc Realty, who is a co-owner in the Chicago Athletic Club brand.

Blue Star Properties had tried to bring a 44-room boutique hotel to the building in 2020, but the plan was scrapped after a series of roadblocks that included confusion over nearby land ownership and financial concerns amid the pandemic.

Developers did not reply to messages seeking comment Wednesday, but Acosta said the rest of the project will be financed through a $5 million loan and private developer equity.

Once the team gets the city money, renews its building permits and finalizes a zoning technicality, Acosta expects construction to start this fall and last for one year. Residents could see the gym open in late 2027.

The Grace’s Furniture building, with its signature neon sign, has deteriorated as it’s sat vacant for years despite being one of the most prominent structures overlooking Logan Square and the Illinois Centennial Monument.

For years, redevelopment was held up by a legal battle over billboards on the side of the building. Facing pressure from local preservationists, the city banned the billboards in 2013. The company that owned the billboards, VisualCast, sued the city and lost; the last remaining billboard came down in 2016.