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Chicago, IL

Edgewater's 11-Story Affordable Tower on an Old Streets and Sanitation Lot Gets Its Permits

Chicago, Illinois issued the caisson and full building permits on Nov. 5 and 6 for Bickerdike's 90-unit, all-affordable building at 5853 N. Broadway in Edgewater, with a reported permit value of $52.2 million, four years after the first plans surfaced.

By Morningline Research · November 9, 2026

Chicago issued the full building permit on Friday for an 11-story apartment building at 5853 N. Broadway in the Edgewater neighborhood, with 90 apartments, all of them affordable. The permit carries a reported value of $52.2 million.

The permits arrive four years after the project first surfaced, on a lot the city has used for a Streets and Sanitation depot.

Two permits in two days

Timeline of the approvals and permits for 5853 N. Broadway
Graphic: Morningline Research, from city building permit records and the reporting linked in this story.

The first permit came Thursday, Nov. 5. It covers "caissons only for proposed 11 story building," the deep foundations, with a reported value of $16 million.

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The full building permit followed on Nov. 6. In the permit's own words, it's for "a new 11-story high rise residential apartment building with 90 dwelling units," plus management offices, amenity rooms, 16 covered but open parking spaces, one loading space and a rooftop amenity deck on the fourth floor.

Permit values are the estimates filed with the city, not contract amounts. Urbanize Chicago puts the whole project at $72.8 million, while Chicago YIMBY called it a $78 million project. We couldn't confirm which figure is current.

Who's building it, and for whom

The developer is Bickerdike Redevelopment Corporation. All 90 apartments will be affordable: 85 for households at 60% of area median income and five at 30%, Urbanize reported. The building is set to rise 128 feet, with one-, two- and three-bedroom units and a ground-floor lobby.

The site sits just south of Thorndale Avenue, beside Broadway Armory Park and a block from the Thorndale Red Line stop. Today it holds a one-story Streets and Sanitation building and its parking lot, according to Chicago YIMBY.

The city owns the land and is selling it to the project for a dollar.

The Thorndale stop on the CTA Red Line in Edgewater
The Thorndale stop on the CTA Red Line, a block from 5853 N. Broadway, in 2012. Photo: Graham Garfield, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).

Four years from first sketch to permit

The first plans, in April 2022, showed 12 stories and 94 apartments, YIMBY reported. By 2024 the design had come down to 11 stories and 90 units. The Plan Commission approved it in March 2025 and rezoned the lot from B1-2 to B2-5.

Then came the money. The Community Development Commission approved $22 million in tax increment financing in September 2025. City Council signed off on the full city package in October, Urbanize reported: the $22 million in TIF, $18.5 million in city-issued tax-exempt bonds and $9.8 million in federal HOME funds, alongside other sources.

One small difference between the records and the coverage: news reports describe 14 parking spaces, while the permit lists 16.

A corridor the city wants built up

The city has bigger plans for this stretch of Broadway. In February 2025 the Plan Commission approved a land use framework for 20 blocks of Broadway between Montrose and Devon, with the densest building aimed at the seven Red Line stations along the way, the Chicago Tribune reported. The Tribune pointed to the Bickerdike building as a project that had already won community approval.

Nationally, permits for buildings with five or more units ran at a seasonally adjusted 503,000 in September, up 5.9% from August, according to Census and HUD figures reported by Construction Dive.

Bickerdike hasn't announced a construction schedule, Urbanize reported. Next on the lot is clearing the old depot, which YIMBY reported was still waiting on its demolition approval.

See all of Chicago's latest permit numbers, updated weekly.

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More numbers: Chicago, IL building permit activity, updated weekly.