The railroad bridge at Leland Avenue and Ravenswood Avenue, a block west of the Schoolhouse site at Ashland and Leland. Photo: vxla, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Schoolhouse on Ashland, a five-story, 78-unit rental building planned for the parking lot at 4641 N. Ashland Ave., received a full building permit in mid-October, clearing the way for construction to start this fall.
Urbanize Chicago reported on Oct. 16 that Honore Properties is developing the corner of Ashland and Leland, next to the former Our Lady of Lourdes School, which is already being converted into 42 apartments. Kennedy Mann designed the new building, which is planned at 60 feet, with 5 studios, 61 one-bedrooms, 10 two-bedrooms and 2 three-bedrooms. Sixteen units would be affordable under the city’s Affordable Requirement Ordinance. The ground floor would have two residential entrances, a bike room for 69 bikes and 33 car spaces entered from Ashland, with apartments screening the parking from the street, Urbanize wrote.
The design was revised to use more brick and less metal, to improve the Leland facade, and to step down from five stories to one at the northeast corner, next to an existing three-story building. The developer also pledged dark-sky lighting, a solar-ready roof, an all-electric building, EV charging at 30% of the parking spaces, and recycling of 80% of construction waste, according to the same report.
Macon Construction Group is the general contractor. Urbanize wrote that the $21 million project is planned to break ground in fall 2026, with an 18-month schedule that would put completion in the first quarter of 2028. Until shovels actually go in, the official step that has already happened is the full permit.
