Thank you to all who voiced their thoughts on the proposed reuse project planned for the former firehouse at 1721 W Greenleaf Ave. We appreciate your feedback to help gauge the community's thoughts on this proposal. 

As a refresher, the Department of Planning and Development (DPD) announced that a café and event space is the winning proposal to repurpose the former Rogers Park firehouse at 1721-23 W Greenleaf Ave. The $3 million project by developer Ryan Cummings will reuse the 111-year-old, City-owned structure as a 2,000-square-foot coffee house with more than 4,000 square feet of event space and offices on the second level. The proposed purchase price is the building’s market value of $350,050.

The project was one of five responses to an October 2025 DPD Request for Proposals (RFP) that prioritized the 6,323-square-foot structure’s adaptive reuse. Submissions were evaluated based on the proposed concept as well as the development team’s financial capacity, relevant experience, and overall project feasibility, among other factors. The project team also includes Michael Salvatore of Chicago-based Heritage Hospitality
Group. The building will need to be rezoned from RT-4 (a primarily-residential zoning designation) to B3-4 (a more business-oriented zoning designation) to allow the development team to repurpose the firehouse. If a project was not selected, the property would continue to be owned by the city and would lie dormant until the process restarted at a later date.

Our survey findings demonstrated strong community support for the development, particularly the adaptive reuse and community-oriented design. Based on the positive feedback, Alderwoman Hadden will be supporting the zoning change from RT-4 to B3-4 for this proposal.

Neighbors expressed parking concerns, questions about hours of operation, and inquiries about making this café different from others in the area. You can see the results of the presentation here. This property will have on-site parking available for patrons. Additionally, as they officially purchase the property and finalize their plan of operation, we will share their proposed hours of operation and event space usage plans with the community.

We have shared the feedback with the developer as well and look forward to working with them to include community thoughts in their plan as they proceed with the support of Alderwoman Hadden in their project.