“A redevelopment of the former Milshire Hotel is being planned at 2525 N. Milwaukee. Planned by the current building owner Milshire Hotel LLC, the property formerly served as a Single Room Occupancy residence. The building is located midblock along N. Milwaukee Ave between N. Sacramento Ave and N. Kedzie Blvd.
”Designed by Kennedy Mann, the redevelopment will convert the building’s interior into 30 residential units and ground floor commercial space. The building’s ground floor will have two retail spaces fronting N. Milwaukee Ave split by a central residential lobby. The back of the ground floor will include three residential units.
”On the exterior, the existing building’s envelope and massing will be retained. Existing windows will be replaced, and new aluminum storefronts will be added for the two commercial spaces on the ground floor. The existing hotel sign is intended to remain and will be restored.
”To allow for the scope of the project, the developer is seeking a rezoning of the site. Approvals will be needed from Alderman La Spata, the Committee on Zoning, and City Council.” (Kugler, Urbanize Chicago, 8/23/26)
”The four-story brick structure, midblock between N. Sacramento Ave and N. Kedzie Blvd, has sat empty for 12 years since closing as a single-room occupancy residence in 2014.
”The Milshire’s history stretches back to the 1920s, when it opened as a weekly transient hotel before eventually becoming a 70-unit SRO.
”The Milshire’s 15-foot-tall vintage neon blade sign, believed to date to the 1930s or 1940s, is one of the few original neon corridor signs still standing on Milwaukee Avenue. In May 2022, M. Fishman & Co. listed the sign for public auction with a $5,000 starting bid, but withdrew it after public outcry and a fundraising drive by Logan Square Preservation aimed at keeping the sign local. The new proposal’s plan to restore that same sign gives the preservation fight a resolution years later.
”La Spata has scheduled a First Look community zoning meeting for September 1, allowing neighborhood residents to review the conceptual plans and weigh in before formal aldermanic review begins.” (Sheffield, Hoodline, 8/23/26)
”The Milshire Hotel’s neon sign is no longer for sale after the building’s owner bowed to community pressure and reversed his plans, agreeing instead to work with neighbors on a plan to keep the historical sign in Logan Square.
”Well-known property investor Mark Fishman listed the 15-foot-tall sign on Live Auctioneers at the end of May with a starting bid of $5,000, rattling community leaders who feared the sign would be ‘shipped out’ of Logan Square when the Milshire Hotel is redeveloped.
”The sign is believed to be at least 80 years old, and is a Milwaukee Avenue staple. Local leaders with the neighborhood group Logan Square Preservation launched an online fundraiser May 29 to buy the sign and preserve it.
”Now, Fishman’s company is pledging to work with Logan Square Preservation to make sure the sign stays in the neighborhood.
”’They saw our campaign, and indicated to us that Mr. Fishman was concerned that the sign would end up sold to somebody and removed from the neighborhood,’ Schneider said. ‘He felt that was not a desirable outcome and that, no matter what, the sign should remain in the neighborhood. I think that’s the correct impulse, and that’s something we appreciate and applaud.’” (Bloom, Block Club Chicago, 6/8/22)
”The sign was installed sometime in the 1930s or 1940s. It was one of many similar signs on Milwaukee Avenue at the time, but few remain today, Logan Square Preservation’s president Andrew Schneider said.
”’We only have a few survivors left,’ Schneider said. ‘To see one of them removed when I don’t know that it’s strictly necessary, it’s a tremendous disappointment and a huge loss. If we can do something to prevent that loss, I think we should.’
”’When you take something out of its context, it becomes a piece of collected ephemera in someone’s private collection,’ Schneider said. ‘When that happens, our city’s streetscape is impoverished … the city, as a whole, loses.’” (Bloom, Block Club Chicago, 6/1/22)
Preservation Chicago is encouraged by the proposed adaptive reuse of the Milshire Hotel. After twelve years of vacancy, a building of this scale on a busy commercial corridor deserves to be occupied and contributing again, and the approach described is the right one: the existing envelope and massing retained, the interior converted, and no additions or alterations to the building’s form.
The restoration of the Milshire’s neon blade sign is the outcome Preservation Chicago and Logan Square Preservation hoped for in 2022. When Mark Fishman listed the fifteen-foot sign for auction with a $5,000 opening bid, it appeared likely to leave Logan Square for a private collection.
Andrew Schneider and Logan Square Preservation mounted a fast and effective campaign, the listing was withdrawn, and the sign stayed. Four years later the sign is not merely surviving but slated for restoration and return to service on the building it was made for. That is how these fights are supposed to end, and Logan Square Preservation deserves the credit.
Preservation Chicago named Chicago’s historic neon and vintage signs to our 2015 Chicago 7 Most Endangered list, and the Milshire is a case study in why. Milwaukee Avenue once carried dozens of these signs. Only a handful remain. A sign restored in place is worth more than a sign in a museum, because it keeps doing the work it was built to do — marking a building, lighting a street, and telling anyone walking past that this corridor has a history.
We encourage Alderman Daniel La Spata, the Committee on Zoning, and City Council to support the rezoning, and we encourage the ownership to hold to the commitment to restore the sign as the project advances through approvals.
Read the full story at Urbanize Chicago, Hoodline and Block Club Chicago
- Mixed-use redevelopment planned at 2525 N. Milwaukee; The former Milshire Hotel will be converted into 30 apartments, Lukas Kugler, Urbanize Chicago, 8/23/26
- Vacant Milshire Hotel in Logan Square Set for 30 Apartments, Neon Sign Rebirth, Damon R. Sheffield, Hoodline, 8/23/26
- Milshire Hotel Sign Will Stay In Logan Square After Owner Cancels Auction; Property investor Mark Fishman reversed his plans to sell the historical neon sign after community pushback. Now, he’s working with community leaders to make sure it stays in Logan Square, Mina Bloom, Block Club Chicago, 6/8/22
- Redevelopment Proposed For Logan Square’s Milshire Hotel, Ian Achong, Chicago YIMBY, 8/24/26
- Mark Fishman Is Selling Logan Square’s Iconic Milshire Hotel Sign. What’s Next For The Building?; Preservationists are rushing to save the neon sign, believed to be about 80 years old, after it listed on Live Auctioneers with a starting bid of $5,000, Mina Bloom, Block Club Chicago, 6/1/22
- It’s Official: M. Fishman Owns Logan Square’s Milshire Hotel, DNAinfo Chicago, 12/18/14
- Neon Signs; a Preservation Chicago 2015 Chicago 7 Most Endangered, 3/4/15
- POTENTIAL WIN: Milshire Hotel Neon Sign Safe for Now After Auction Cancelled; Preservation Chicago, 6/2022