Chicago’s booming Milwaukee Avenue corridor is continuing to push north as developers look to bring a new project to the city’s “hot and up-and-coming” Avondale neighborhood. Slated for 3063-71 N. Milwaukee Avenue, the proposal would replace a single-story former mattress store and parking lot with a four-story, mixed-use building designed by Chicago-based Hanna Architects.

The project was initially discussed as a 33-unit apartment development but has since modified its programming to instead feature 17 for-sale condo units. While the development team was tight-lipped as to the reasoning behind the change, it is understood that the City of Chicago’s new affordable housing pilot program had some bearing on the decision.

Aimed at boosting affordable housing in three rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods, the recently-adopted measure requires developers to build beyond the previously mandated 10 percent affordable rate units. Within the designated Milwaukee Corridor Zone, the affordable unit requirement has been bumped to 15 percent for developers opting to build on-site and climbs to 20 percent if a developer chooses to build those units off-site.