The redevelopment of the Werner Brothers Storage Building in Rogers Park took its first city-approved step forward Thursday.
The Chicago Plan Commission approved plans to restore and convert the historic building into apartments and add an eight-story mixed-use building next door.
The project will create 80 affordable apartments, helping solve the issue of displacement for lower-income and long-term residents of Rogers Park, Ald. Maria Hadden (49th) said.
“In this area, we don’t have many opportunities to … build new increased density without destroying what we have,” Hadden said. “Finding those opportunities and making an impact where we can to include more affordable housing, especially family-size units, that was a big thing.”
Housing For All and Visionary Ventures are leading the project alongside JTE Real Estate.
The partners plan to demolish a one-story building next to the Werner Brothers structure, 7613 N. Paulina St., to make way for the eight-story building. Inside the Werner, the developers will keep the historic two-story lobby and convert the rest of the property into apartments.
Units will span from studios to three-bedrooms and will be affordable for households earning between 30% and 80% of the area median income, according to the development team. Because of the income range, the team said it’s marketing the building as both affordable and workforce housing.
Amenities will include a common room, fitness center and bike room.
The new building next door will have more than 5,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space. The common room at the property will be programmed by residents, Therese Thompson, vice president at architecture firm Cordogan, Clark & Associates, said.
The development team has previously said it’s hopeful the retail space will reinvigorate the corridor, which is off the Red Line’s Howard station. Developers on Thursday emphasized that the project is in a transit-rich area, with PACE and CTA bus access, in addition to the Red, Purple and Yellow line trains.
Thompson said the brick and terra cotta on the Werner building will be cleaned and tuck pointed as part of the redevelopment. Two pieces of terra cotta that are heavily damaged will be replaced.
The 1920s building, designed by George S. Kingsley, has an intricate terra cotta design and was on Preservation Chicago’s list of the most endangered buildings in 2023.
Thompson praised the building’s “quite elaborate” terra cotta facade, saying the project’s drawings don’t do it justice.
The Werner project has been in the works since 2022. Like many affordable housing projects, the $60 million project’s funding pulls from a variety of sources — many of them tax credits. The team was awarded more than $1.6 million in low-income housing tax credits in June 2025.
If approved by the City Council, the team hopes to start construction in September and finish in February 2028.