A North Side synagogue is asking Edgewater residents to support a plan that would transform its lakefront site into a 12-story apartment complex with hundreds of units and a new, smaller synagogue.
Emanuel Congregation co-President Andrew Degenholtz told several hundred neighborhood residents Thursday night that the synagogue has about 250 member families, not enough to afford its 34,000 square-foot structure at 5959 N. Sheridan Road, completed in 1955 when Emanuel had 1,000 families.
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Fern Hill Co.’s development plan for 5959 N. Sheridan Road in Edgewater would replace the synagogue Emanuel Congregation with an apartment tower and a new lakeside home for the congregation. (Eckenhoff Saunders Architects)
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Fern Hill Co.’s development plan for 5959 N. Sheridan Road in Edgewater would replace the synagogue Emanuel Congregation with an apartment tower and a new lakeside home for the congregation. (Eckenhoff Saunders Architects)
“The challenge that we have is our building is too expensive to maintain and operate,” he said. “We’ve turned over every stone that we could, but the opportunity we have here is the one we can use to protect our future for the next 75 years.”
Dozens of apartment and condo buildings, most built in the 1960s and 1970s, including some more than 300 feet tall, already line Sheridan Road in Edgewater. The aging synagogue, located just north of Lane Beach, is one of the few relatively open spaces on the congested lakefront.
Emanuel Congregation forged a partnership with developer Fern Hill, which last year held several preliminary meetings with neighbors, showing more than a dozen early proposals for a mixed-use apartment complex.
Edgewater residents sent a clear message, said Nick Anderson, Fern Hill’s founder and president.
“The obvious takeaway from the community was to make the building as short as possible,” he said.
Fern Hill and its design team from Eckenhoff Saunders Architects settled on a courtyard building with up to 600 units facing south toward the beach. Twenty percent of the units would be reserved for affordable housing. The 150 foot-tall complex would include ground-floor commercial space and a distinctive 14,000 square-foot lakeside synagogue for Emanuel Congregation. A five-story building with about 60 units would also be built on property owned by Fern Hill just to the west on the other side of Sheridan Road.
Emanuel Congregation would own its portion of the complex, Degenholtz said. It would not have any ownership interest in the residential and commercial spaces.
Fern Hill is also planning to develop Old Town Canvas, a 349-unit apartment tower at 1600 N. LaSalle Drive in Old Town.
Architect Jonas Packer owns a condo in a tower just north of Emanuel Congregation and said some of his neighbors fear a new tower will block their views of the lake and beach, possibly sinking their property values.
Packer attended several community meetings on the issue and said he doesn’t think the concerns of nearby property owners are being heard.
“It’s been a dog-and-pony show every time,” he said.
Anderson said plans remain fluid. The developer will continue getting feedback, discuss all possible adjustments with synagogue members and hold additional public meetings.
“Let’s call this version 1.0,” Anderson said. “If there is a version 2.0, that’s something the synagogue will have to decide for themselves.”
Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth, 48th, hosted the Thursday night meeting at the synagogue and said the development team still needs to submit a plan to city officials and then secure approvals from the Chicago Plan Commission, the City Council’s zoning committee and then the full City Council.
“The important thing to understand today is that no decision has been made,” she said.
Several people at the meeting asked why Emanuel Congregation didn’t just sell the land outright and find a new home. Others said they worried a synagogue integrated into an apartment complex would not have the sacred appearance needed for a religious institution.
Degenholtz said the synagogue consulted with brokers and developers and found that selling the existing property would not have generated enough funds to build elsewhere. The deal with Fern Hill means Emanuel Congregation will own a $10 million property unencumbered by debt and easier to maintain, one that includes classrooms, offices and a place of worship with spectacular views of the lake, he said.
“If we moved, we would lose our legacy and the ability to be in the community,” Degenholtz said.
Matthew Wylie, principal with Eckenhoff Saunders, said the new synagogue would not resemble the surrounding apartments. The designers plan to use yellow masonry and reuse historic elements of the existing structure including Jerusalem stone and stained glass.
“It will hearken back to the Holy Land,” Wylie said.
Several people asked why Fern Hill wasn’t planning to preserve lakefront views by putting the main apartment building on the west side of Sheridan Road, and the smaller building on the synagogue’s present location.
“The short answer is traffic,” Anderson said. He pointed out that there are no curb cuts on the west side plot, but the intersection of Thorndale Avenue and Sheridan Road will easily feed cars into the project’s east side. “The east side just has that built-in capacity.”
Although the developers haven’t decided on a final unit count, Anderson said the project would be far less dense than other Edgewater towers along Sheridan Road, and have a modest impact on local traffic. Fern Hill expects most residents will use public transportation or ride bikes, so the new 5959 N. Sheridan Road will include around 150 parking spaces and at least one bike space for each apartment.
“Being two blocks from the Thorndale Red Line stop is a huge advantage,” Anderson said.
