The Schoenhofen Brewery buildings on 18th Street between Canal Street and Canalport Avenue have long symbolized the lack of development in East Pilsen. As Joe Zekas and I have discussed before, the Schoenhofen buildings seem ripe for loft conversion, and the fact that developers have left them to languish for so long seems to undermine claims that the neighborhood is rapidly gentrifying.
However, I recently noticed scaffolding up in front of the Schoenhofen administrative building. The administrative building is the older of the two; it was built in 1886, and in recent years it’s been crumbling.
I gave Dimitrios Kourkouvis from Athens Construction a call to see what was going on there. Kourkouvis confirmed that his company is restoring the building, and he says that he envisions some sort of retail on the ground level – maybe a restaurant, a wine bar or even a sports bar – and perhaps artist lofts or offices in the rest of the building. He says the 25,000 square-foot building is zoned as a commercial building, so there won’t be any residential units there.
Kourkouvis reminded me of the building’s landmark status, explaining that his company will have to faithfully restore the exterior of the building, maintaining terra cotta trim and replacing the brown stone at the base. It sounds like quite a job, but he says construction should be done by the end of the year.
Next door, at the Schoenhofen powerhouse building, I noticed these Chinese lions guarding the door, which I hadn’t seen there before.