As the Cubs seek to put new advertising signs on the rooftops of buildings they control across the street from Wrigley Field, the owners of three other properties that overlook the ballpark are “proposing to redevelop them with a 29-unit apartment building,” according to Danny Ecker of CRAIN'S CHICAGO BUSINESS. The trio of properties includes one with a “long-standing billboard on its roof” that for decades displayed an advertisement for Torco oil, as well as the property “famous for its ‘Eamus Catuli’ sign” -- translated from Latin as “Let's go Cubs” -- along its roofline. If approved, the plan would “reshape a stretch of Sheffield well known to generations of Cubs fans.” The building's owners for years “sold tickets to fans to sit on rooftop bleachers and watch Cubs games,” but those seats have “sat mostly empty since the team erected a massive video board in right field in 2015 that blocked their view.” The redevelopment proposal comes as the Ricketts family, which owns the Cubs as well as a dozen properties along Sheffield and Waveland avenues across the street from the ballpark, “eyes its own plan to alter a pair of those buildings.” The team is “seeking to add large LED corporate logo signs” atop the buildings at 3623 N. Sheffield -- next door to one of investor Edward McCarthy’s properties -- as well as 1040 W. Waveland Ave (CRAIN'S CHICAGO BUSINESS, 3/20).
