Five Stories Up on Irving Park: North Center's New Mixed-Use 'The Irving' Gets Its Building Permit
By Socialhood News · North Center ·
North Center's Irving Park Road corridor is getting a significant new addition. A building permit has been issued for a five-story mixed-use development at 2035 West Irving Park Road — a project that will bring new housing, ground-floor retail, and resident amenities to a corner that's been sitting empty since a former retail strip center was demolished in 2024.
The project is called The Irving, and it's being developed by Altitude Capital Partners and Newport Realty, with architectural design by Jonathan Splitt Architects. Located at the southwest corner of West Irving Park Road and North Seeley Avenue, the development carries a reported project value of $6.5 million. At street level, The Irving will feature 3,000 square feet of retail space fronting Irving Park Road, keeping the corridor's walkable, commercial character intact while adding density above.
For a stretch of Irving Park that has watched a vacant lot sit at one of its key corners, the permit issuance marks a meaningful turning point. The former retail strip center that previously occupied the site was razed in 2024, leaving a gap that neighbors have been watching closely. The Irving is designed to fill that gap with a building that serves the neighborhood on multiple levels — literally and figuratively.
The development fits squarely within a broader pattern of mixed-use investment along North Center's Irving Park corridor. Separately, the Chicago Zoning Board of Appeals recently approved variations for another five-story development at 4147 N. Western Avenue, also in North Center, which will bring eight residential units to that address. Together, these projects signal sustained builder confidence in the neighborhood's ability to absorb new housing and retail along its commercial spines.
For North Center residents, The Irving represents the kind of infill development the neighborhood has been gradually welcoming over the past several years — projects that replace underutilized or vacant parcels with buildings that offer ground-floor retail for daily errands and upper-floor homes for new neighbors. The Irving Park Road and Seeley Avenue corner sits within easy walking distance of the Northcenter Town Square area and the Brown Line's Irving Park station, making it a transit-accessible location well-suited for car-light living.
Altitude Capital Partners and Newport Realty have not announced a construction start date publicly, but the issuance of a building permit means the project is cleared to break ground. Neighbors curious about the project's timeline or design can track permit progress through the City of Chicago's building permit portal at chicago.gov/buildings, searching by address at 2035 W. Irving Park Road. As The Irving moves from permit to construction in the months ahead, Irving Park Road's southwest corner at Seeley will become one of the more closely watched job sites in North Center — a five-story signal of what the neighborhood's next chapter looks like.
Sources:
1. https://www.chicagoconstructionnews.com/new-mixed-use-development-approved-for-north-center/
2. https://chicago.urbanize.city/neighborhood/north-center