Chapel Lanes Reopen, With ​“Archive” Apartments

Eastbound travel lanes are back open for the first time in a year and a half on a downtown block of Chapel Street — which is no longer a roadway-shuttering construction zone, and which now has 166 new places to live.

A new stretch of sidewalk and two newly reopened vehicle lanes on the southern side of Chapel between Church and Orange streets are back open as of Wednesday.

That side of the Chapel block closed to all users of the roadway and sidewalk back in April 2023, as a Chicago-based real estate company called CA Ventures set about constructing 166 new apartments and groundfloor retail space across two new buildings — one at 808 Chapel, the other at 842 – 848 Chapel.

According to Project Manager Dan Holt of Haynes Construction, ​“99.9 percent” of that construction work is now done. He said the first tenants moved in to the new apartments — dubbed ​“The Archive” — in mid-August.

“People are living in both buildings,” he said. ​“We’re wrapping up some punch-list items,” like amenity space on the rooftop. But otherwise, the buildings are just about built.

Justin Hudson, the leasing and marketing manager at The Archive, said that the buildings are roughly 35 percent occupied so far. ​“We are really excited to be immersed in the community” and to have this stretch of Chapel Street back open after so many months, he said.

“We kind of disrupted” the block with the construction-related lane closures, he said. But now the street’s open, the apartments are ready, and ​“we are looking forward to being involved in the community.”

“The construction activities were substantial,” added city Economic Development Administrator Mike Piscitelli, ​“and we appreciate the community’s patience with all of the extra noise and traffic. Now that the Archive is open, we look forward to more spending power and overall vibrancy in the Chapel/Orange Street area.”

The two new apartment buildings that comprise The Archive used to be home to a Kresge department store, which burned down in 2007. The 842 – 848 Chapel St. lot had sat vacant ever since. CA Ventures purchased the properties from Northside Development’s Paul Denz for $6.75 million in November 2022.