Zev Salomon of ZSD Corp. has purchased an approximately 80,000-square-foot parcel of riverfront land at 2221 W. Oakdale Ave., located in Chicago’s Roscoe Village neighborhood, for $5.96 million from SVN Chicago Commercial. The long-vacant site, boasting approximately 300 feet of Chicago River frontage, will be used to build a 35-unit row home community called RiverWard Row Homes.

The transaction was brokered by Wayne Caplan and Adam Thomas of SVN Chicago Commercial, who represented the seller. The buyer was advised by Matthew Lucas of Accretive, LLC, and Kale Realty.

Caplan said, “There are only so many developable sites situated on the Chicago River, and they are always in demand from all kinds of developers. This long-vacant site will be turned into a beautiful rowhome community. The deal took more than a year to close due to many time-consuming obstacles that the purchaser had to overcome, including a zoning change and coordination with the Army Corps of Engineers on river access, but ultimately, they got it across the finish line.”

Thomas noted that the strategic location was a key driver of interest.

“The transformation of the Chicago River, along with the site’s convenient location in the middle of four Chicago neighborhoods — all with strong residential demand — West Lakeview, Roscoe Village, Bucktown and Avondale were key factors that made this development opportunity so desirable,” Thomas said. “The most recent $100 million expansion of the Chicago Riverwalk in 2017 has helped spur significant development of a variety of uses along the river, both north and south of the Loop.”

The RiverWard Row Homes development will bring much-needed new housing to a vibrant residential corridor and marks a significant step in the ongoing transformation of underutilized riverfront land.