Nearly $14M revamp of pre-Civil War building into Chick House Flats begins in downtown Rockford

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
Get our mobile app

ROCKFORD — Work is officially underway to turn one of the few remaining pre-Civil War buildings in downtown into a mix of luxury loft apartments and ground floor businesses.

Urban Equity Properties celebrated on Friday the start of construction on the Chick House Flats, an approximately $14 million redevelopment of the 168-year-old building at the corner of of South Main and Elm streets across from the BMO Center.

Photos and video: inside the historic Chick House Hotel in downtown Rockford

The historic building will become 18 lofts on the second and third floors and three ground-floor spaces for retail or restaurants.

Revitalizing the building, much of which has been vacant for decades, has been a goal for the city since taking ownership of the southern half in 2004. Urban Equity Properties purchased the northern half of the property in late December from Rockford Office Supply House for $250,000. Then it purchased the city’s vacant and deteriorating half for $64,000.

“There’s thousands and thousands of visitors to the BMO every week, in some cases,” said Justin Fern, founding principal of Urban Equity Properties. “I could no longer look at this building in the condition it’s been in for so many decades with that entry across the street.”

Construction is expected to take roughly two years, with the first tenants arriving in late summer 2027. There will be 14 one-bedroom lofts and four two-bedroom units. Rents are expected to start at about $1,500, Fern said.

“Every building that we take on at Urban Equity Properties, it has its own uniqueness to it. We try to tie the interior design and exterior to certain elements of the location and the building and the history,” Fern said. “This one is going to have a little bit of a theater design flair to go with the Main Street district.”

Mayor Tom McNamara, who attended the celebration along with aldermen Tamir Bell and Chad Tuneberg, said the development represents another piece of positive momentum for downtown. A week ago the city marked the start of a $15.5M project to revamp Davis Park, two weeks before that was the opening of the City Center Market grocery store in downtown, and in about a month the Nu State Apartments, another Urban Equity development, will open at Church and State streets.

“We are seeing new life in this entire area. It’s going to improve the quality of life of our current residents, it’s going to help us bring new residents here and it’s going to continue to help us drive the economic momentum that we have been seeing,” McNamara said. “It’s just going to be a whole new city and a whole new downtown over the next couple of years.”

Tuneberg said the building has sat vacant across from a major visitor attraction for too long.

“We have thousands upon thousands of out-of-town visitors coming in for events at the BMO, and for them in the past to have looked across the street and seen this, unfortunately solidifies a stigma, sometimes, that Rockford doesn’t deserve,” he said. “With the help of Urban Equity that’s going to change, and it’s going to change quick.”

City support

The city aided in the redevelopment by offering a $2.7 million forgivable loan, with $550,000 of that money coming from surplus funds the city had set aside for repairs to the property. If UEP maintains 75% residential occupancy, the loan payments will be waived in $270,000 installments over 10 years.

The city also created a new tax increment finance district around the property. It agreed to repay Urban Equity Properties 100% of the revenue it generates from its improvements on a pay-as-you-go basis over the 23-year life of the TIF.

TIF districts capture increases in property taxes that come when a property’s value increases into a special fund that can pay for improvements. For example, if property taxes were $2,500 before improvements and $5,000 after, the additional $2,500 in taxes can be repaid to the developer for specific capital work.

The city will also make parking available in its Wyman and Elm streets parking deck free during the two-year construction process, and it will reduce parking costs by 50% for two years and 75% for five years at the deck once tenants move in.

Funding for the project will also come from historic tax credits and a traditional construction loan, which UEP obtained through Union Savings Bank.

In a round of thank-yous during the ceremony, Fern also praised another developer, Sunil Puri. He said Puri, the founder of First Midwest Group, is often thought of as an east Rockford developer, but his support to Urban Equity projects has played a major role in downtown revitalization.

“He’s purchased historic tax credits from us over the last 10 years on over $100 million worth of projects that were all downtown,” Fern said. “It’s super critical piece that a lot of folks don’t know, but I think they should. … He has been a huge part of downtown’s success because of that component.”

Chick House

The historic property was originally called the Griggs House when it was built in 1857.

Former railroad engineer Thomas Chick bought the property in 1888 and changed the name to Chick House, which operated until 1928. It reopened a year later as the Elms hotel and ran until 1951, according to newspaper archives.

The building is one of three pre-Civil War commercial buildings still standing in downtown, according to the city. The others are the Metropolitan Hall Lofts, built in 1856 at 404 W. State St., and the Block 3 lofts at 330 E. State St.

It boasts both Greek revival and Italianate architecture.

The second and third floors of the building still remain largely untouched from its days as a dormitory-style hotel. Some rooms had their own restrooms, some had shared bathrooms in the hallways. Spaces will be reconfigured to accommodate the new apartment layout, while keeping the historic nature of the building in tact.

On the ground floor you can still see the remnants of the former Scribner’s Soda Bar, which closed in 1999, a year after the family sold it, according to newspaper archives.

In the future, Fern envisions a property where one of the biggest draws is the location itself.

“I think the amenity in this case is, No. 1, the location. You’ve got this killer location across from the BMO — you’re in the action,” Fern said.

He said another amenity will be its design, which will borrow elements from Main Street theaters such as the historic Coronado Theatre.

‘Going vertical’

Fern said the project will inch Urban Equity Properties closer to its ambitious goal to add thousands of residents to downtown over the next two decades.

He said the company’s downtown map shows 2,900 people living in that area now. They want 15,000 over the next 20 years.

“Imagine 15,000 folks living downtown,” Fern said. “Imagine how well the restaurants, the retail, the theaters, all the special events, the tax bases — everything around — would do if we had 15,000 people, roughly five times what we have today.”

The developer is in negotiations on several other properties downtown, and Fern said they expect to close on a couple of purchases before the end of the year.

“We do have some big plans that we’re going to unveil here soon about that goal and how we can execute that,” Fern said. “It’s going to take going vertical on several projects to get that kind of population down here.”

Hitting its goal for growth will require approximately 8,500 more units, he said. That will mean some new construction on vacant land, including multistory apartment buildings. “Not three-, four-, five-story buildings. We’re talking double or triple that.”

“If demand goes away, which I don’t think it will, we won’t build,” he said. “But right now there’s demand and we’re going to keep going,”

See inside

The video below is from our tour through the property in January, shortly after Urban Equity Properties had purchased a portion of the building.

Photos and video: The historic Chick House Hotel in downtown Rockford

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas