by BRIAN NADIG

Several redevelopment projects are being targeted for the Gladstone Park area.

A four-story, 52-unit, market-rate apartment-retail complex is being proposed for the former bank at the southwest corner of Central and Elston avenues, and permits are pending for two construction projects near Milwaukee and Elston avenues.

The Republic Bank branch at 5700 N. Central Ave. closed in 2014, and it was once the home of DiLeo’s Restaurant. The building has been unoccupied since then. In 2010 the bank purchased Citizens Bank and Trust, which had opened on the site in 2000.

The retail-residential proposal calls for the 33,000-square-foot site to have 19 studio units and 22 one-bedroom, eight two-bedroom and three three-bedroom apartments on the upper floors, according to project attorney John Pikarski Jr. The apartments would have balconies.









The ground floor would include 4,900 square feet of commercial space near the corner of the Elston-Central intersection and a mix of 60 indoor and outdoor parking spaces. The property would be rezoned from B3-1 to B2-3.

Meanwhile, a permit application has been filed for the construction of a one-story masonry building with four storefronts at 6116 N. Elston Ave., where a boarded-up former car repair shop is located.

There also is a pending permit application to build a four-story building with 15 residential units on the upper floors and storefronts and a 15-car garage on the ground floor at 6067 N. Milwaukee Ave. There also would be a rooftop stair enclosure, according to the application.

In 2006 several properties at 6065-71 N. Milwaukee Ave. were rezoned for a condominium project that never materialized. It includes the former site of Pyramid Packaging.

The existing B3-3 zoning is significantly denser than the typical B3-1 along Milwaukee in Gladstone Park. B3-1 allows for one residential unit per 2,500 square feet of land compared to 400 square feet of land under B3-3.

(Photo by Rob Mandik)