The City’s Historic and Design Review Commission on Wednesday granted development firm NRP Group final approval for a five-story mixed-use apartment building on lower Broadway Street.
The developer plans to raze a vacant building in the 1000 block of Broadway, the site of various campaign headquarters in recent years, to make way for the proposed apartment complex.
The HDRC voted unanimously to grant a certificate of appropriateness for the project. Tentatively called the 1011 Broadway, the development will house 283 residential units on a 2.5-acre property across Broadway from Maverick Park.
Travis Sheffield, NRP’s vice president of development, told the Rivard Report his company is still finalizing the sizes of apartments that will be built, but added the average size currently planned is 817 square feet.
Amenities would include a café lounge, a rooftop clubhouse, a swimming pool, and a fitness center. Rent prices and total project cost are still being worked out, said Sheffield and Ryan Reed, NRP’s design manager.
The development will offer 14,800 square feet of retail space, with the largest being nearly 6,000 feet. The retail spaces will front Broadway and Jones Avenue.
Two-story commercial space will be available along Jones while the single-story retail space facing Broadway will provide a more intimate, neighborhood feel, Reed explained. The building will wrap around the complex’s parking garage.
“We have a building we think will complement the existing pedestrian-friendly route on Jones and be a great addition on Broadway,” Reed told the Rivard Report.
The 1000 block of Broadway west of Maverick Park currently accommodates three separate lots, two of which have existing structures.
The lot addressed as 210 E. Jones Ave. features a one-story commercial structure and a warehouse building. The lot addressed as 1001/1011 Broadway hosts a one-story commercial structure that previously served as a car sales showroom and more recently functioned as headquarters for various political campaigns, including Ron Nirenberg’s mayoral campaign.
All structures will be demolished to make way for NRP’s new development, which will add to the residential and mixed-use spaces springing up in and around the River North neighborhood.
NRP hopes to break ground before the end of the year or early January 2019, Reed and Sheffield said.
City staff recommended final approval so long as the developer conducts an archaeological survey of the site and creates a pedestrian island on the Broadway curb cut that would lead to the parking garage.
Reed told commissioners an archaeological report was submitted to the City, and that a pedestrian island has been incorporated into the design “to create a more pedestrian-friendly atmosphere.”
City staffers added that NRP has met other stipulations the City and HRDC requested when the project received conceptual approval in September.
Commission Chairman Michael Guarino agreed with fellow commissioners that NRP successfully addressed the Broadway curb cut matter in a way that seeks to reduce rush-hour traffic issues on Broadway.
