







by BRIAN NADIG

A 55-unit affordable apartment complex is being proposed for a vacant parcel at the southeast corner of Central and Waveland avenues, where a Dominick’s grocery store was once located.

Alderman Gilbert Villegas will hold a community meeting on the proposal at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 26, at Reinberg School, 3425 N. Major Ave. In an online posting, Villegas said that “we are looking at a number of options” for the site and that “in the end, it will be the community, not me, that makes the decision.”

The developer is the Chicago-based nonprofit Full Circle Communities, which is the developer of a 32-unit project at 3060 N. Milwaukee Ave. The proposed 55-unit building at 3655 N. Central Ave. has several local partners, including the Northwest Side Housing Center and the Metropolitan Family Services.

Plans call for a four-story building with 18 one-bedroom, nine two-bedroom, 22 three-bedroom and six four-bedroom units. Some of the units would be set aside for veterans, and construction could start as early as spring of 2017.

The building’s amenities would include a community room, a library and computer lab, and a property management office, and several on-site services, including financial counseling and communities activities, also would be offered.

In 2006, the construction of 60 condominiums and a CVS Pharmacy was proposed for the former Dominick’s site. Residents expressed traffic and parking concerns about the proposal at a community meeting held by then-alderman Thomas Allen.

While the pharmacy was built at the southern end of the parcel, the condominium portion of the project never materialized. An earlier proposal called for medical offices for the parcel, but Allen said at the time that there were not enough doctors willing to commit to leases.







