The historic St. Boniface church building in Chicago’s Noble Square neighborhood will be preserved and redeveloped into 17 condominiums through a redevelopment agreement approved today by City Council.

Planned for the northeast corner of Noble and Chestnut streets, the $30 million project requires Council approval due to the building’s 2008 acquisition by the City and subsequent sale for a redevelopment project that never materialized.

The current owner, St. Boniface LLC, acquired the building from the previous owner in 2016 through the coordination of the city’s departments of Planning & Development, Buildings and Law, which worked to save the structure from demolition and create a new redevelopment plan.

The new redevelopment agreement with the City will require St. Boniface LLC to complete the building’s adaptive re-use; construct a new 24-unit residential building on land to the east that will be subject to the City’s Affordable Requirements Ordinance; and construct a new, two-story building on adjacent land to the north that includes four affordable residential units and administrative space to be used by the Northwestern University Settlement House (NUSH), which provides social services and educational programming to Chicago families.

The church building, with its four-tower, Romanesque Revival design, was designed by noted church architect Henry Schlacks and dedicated in 1904, an event described by the Chicago American newspaper as “one of the most impressive religious spectacles in the history of Chicago.” The church was shuttered by the Archdiocese in 1990.

Zoning for the $30 million redevelopment project was approved by City Council in May.

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