Sunday, January 27, 2013

Address Unknown - Damen & Chase.

        This building's corner door is newly adorned with Latin Kings graffiti, though not seen on this picture which was taken a week earlier. No address on this small commercial space attached to the slightly rundown apartment building which has an unofficial auto shop in its garage. The inside of this space has been framed out and outfitted with brand new electrical and insulation hangs from the ceiling. But this space sits vacant today as it has for years. At least the fire hydrant and fire lane have been repainted. The do not enter sign however has fallen victim to sticker vandalism. Hopefully some day soon a shop of some sort will inhabit this forlorn and dead corner to bring life back to this area of Rogers Park.



Do Not Enter sign is depressed because
a human put a mail sticker on it.















3 comments:

Davey said...

This space and the storefronts across from it just don't manage to attract viable businesses. You'd think the newish townhouse development and upgraded housing on Damen would supply some customers, but they don't seem to. Best outcome would probably be either to put residential housing on this corner or make an effort to develop a viable small commercial strip, but it can't be done one storefront at a time.

Philip McGregor Rogers said...

The triangle building at Rogers and Touhy was a failed condo conversion and then has been fixed up, hopefully as that fills up that also builds demand for more retail around there.

Ridge and Touhy lost the Lamppost recently (the bar).

I would think at this space a small coffee shop would be a natural.

More posts in the future concerning this area and its potential.

Philip McGregor Rogers said...

Yes it is a bit small for a coffee shop, but they do work in dense areas, like the dunkin donuts on paulina at the howard bus terminal and also alchemy by the purple line terminus in wilmette.

alternatively I think the ward committeeman's office would do well there, especially as that building is up for sale and it being by a Metra station that space may be more of a natural for a coffee shop.