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CHICAGO-A Southwest Side chocolate warehouse will be demolished and replaced by a $70-million residential development that can hardly be called plain vanilla. Up to 250 units, most of them townhouses or units in two- to six-flats, will be built in the 4900 and 5000 blocks of South Lawndale Avenue during the next three years.

"It'll be one of the largest residential developments on the Southwest Side in 50 years," says John Molloy of the department of planning and development. Adds Alderman Bernard Stone, whose 50th Ward covers the far North Side, "This really reflects the old-Chicago neighborhood style. I'm glad to see a neighborhood on the Southwest Side coming back and be redeveloped."

The developer, 5007 Lawndale Corp., includes New West Realty Inc.'s Theodore Mazola. "We'll be starting as soon as we get permitted, which we hope is November," he tells GlobeSt.com. His partnership is negotiating letters of intent with two potential lenders, he adds.