Adaptive Reuse in Chicago’s North Shore: Why Paul Leongas Bets on Existing Buildings

Paul Leongas

The flashiest projects in commercial real estate are always the new builds. Glass and steel. Ribbon cuttings. Clean renderings on a developer’s website. Meanwhile, the projects that actually work in neighborhoods like Edison Park, Park Ridge, and Skokie tend to involve buildings that have been standing for 40 years.

Paul Leongas knows the difference. Through Axis Development Group LLC, he focuses heavily on adaptive reuse, taking existing commercial structures and reconfiguring them for new tenants and new uses. It is less glamorous than ground-up construction. It is also, in many cases, the smarter move.

The math is straightforward. On Chicago’s North Shore, available land for new commercial construction is scarce. The corridors are built out. The zoning is established. The neighborhoods have character, and residents tend to protect it. A developer who shows up with plans to demolish a block and build something new is going to spend two years in community meetings before breaking ground. A developer who takes an existing building and makes it work for a new tenant can often be open for business in months.

Then there is the cost. Tearing down a structurally sound building to build a new one is expensive in ways that do not always show up in the initial budget. Demolition, debris removal, new foundation work, and the permitting timeline for new construction all add cost and time. An adaptive reuse project starts with walls, a roof, and a foundation that already exist. The money goes into making the interior work for the new use, not into recreating what was already there.

Paul Leongas has been on both sides of this. He spent over 25 years operating a restaurant in spaces that were not originally designed as restaurants. Every location was a conversion. The family took existing commercial spaces in Schaumburg, Edison Park, and Skokie and turned them into functioning establishments. That meant dealing with structural limitations, outdated mechanical systems, code compliance issues, and floor plans that fought the intended use.

That experience taught Paul what works in an adaptive reuse project and where the money disappears. A load-bearing wall in the wrong place can kill a floor plan. An undersized electrical service can add $30,000 to a budget before a single wall goes up. A roof that looks fine from the street but has not been maintained in 15 years will eat your contingency fund by week three.

Because Axis Development Group self-performs construction, Paul Leongas can assess these issues himself before closing on a property. He walks buildings with a contractor’s eye, not just an investor’s. He checks the mechanicals, looks at the roof, pulls ceiling tiles, and estimates what a conversion will actually cost before making an offer. Most developers bring in a third-party inspector and take the report at face value. Paul does his own inspection because he knows what to look for and what the standard reports miss.

His commercial portfolio includes properties across the North Shore that have been repositioned for new commercial tenants. The buildings are not new. But the businesses inside them are, and they work because the space was rebuilt to support them rather than decorated to hide what was already failing.

Ground-up construction has its place. But in established neighborhoods with limited inventory and engaged communities, the developer who can see potential in an existing building has an edge over the one waiting for a vacant lot that does not exist.