The Glenwood Point Apartments, at 1412 W. Lunt Ave. , will locate the Athena Board Game Cafe on the first floor.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
The Athena Board Game Cafe plans to reopen in Rogers Park through early fall, at the former Heartland Cafe, the neighborhood’s iconic place to eat and listen to music.
The one-story assets were demolished in 2019 and replaced with a five-story apartment structure that added a ground-floor advertising area. Athena, which signed a 10-year lease, will occupy 985 square feet of area once the structure is completed.
“We plan to offer the same products and facilities that our consumers enjoyed at the first location in a new, modern building,” said Athena founder Patricia González.
Patricia Gonzalez, owner of the Athena Board Game Cafe in Rogers Park (downtown) and her daughter Sara Rivera Gonzalez play the Machi Koro game at the now-closed café on West Howard Street. The café will reopen at 1412 W. Lunt Ave.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Its new location, at 1412 W. Lunt Ave. , will feature plenty of board games to play and serve food and drinks. Guests are also welcome to bring their own alcohol.
“I’ve lived in Rogers Park for almost six years. I moved here because it’s a vibrant, community-oriented place, and I hope it continues to be so,” Gonzales said. “The citizens of Rogers Park were the core of my visitor base at my previous location, and I look forward to welcoming them back to the new location. “
The board game cafeteria will open its doors with heritage. Heartland Cafe co-founders Katy Hogan and Michael James opened the dining place in 1976 with the concept of creating a network through food, entertainment and sharing concepts, according to WBEZ.
Heartland closed in 2018 and the following year, owner Tom Rosenfeld sold the construction to real estate investor Sam Goldman for $1. 3 million. Soon after, the site that once housed politicians such as former Mayor Harold Washington and President Barack Obama was demolished to make way for what is now the Glenwood Point Apartments.
Rosenfeld said at the time that he couldn’t take care of the beloved eating spot and sell it, according to Block Club Chicago. Heartland has faced monetary difficulties, adding a $455,000 foreclosure lawsuit filed in 2018.
Gonzalez remembers visiting Heartland when he moved to Rogers Park in 2018.
“It was a beautiful, cozy place with delicious food,” she said. “I’m glad Athena is here to be another anchor and gathering place for the community and I hope there are more spaces and activities around us. “
Athena’s concept was propelled through Gonzalez’s scale at a board game café in London called Draughts, where she and her daughter would spend hours gambling on board games.
He opened Athena at 1418 W. Howard St. in March 2020, but closed the location in 2023. Gonzalez said consumers had older games like Battleship or Guess Who, while more experienced players liked Splendor, Ticket to Ride and Catan.
Al Goldberg, a real estate agent with Al Goldberg Real Estate, who represented Athena, said in a press release: “I have visited the Heartland Café since it opened in 1976 and look forward to the APBA baseball game at the Athena Board Game. Café “
“We are excited about the opening of the Athena Board Game Cafe in the building; We think it fits well with the Rogers Park network and we hope the network will be back in this corner,” Goldman, director of AGE Glenwood, said in a press release.
Glenwood Point Apartments has 30 units ranging from studios to three bedrooms, with rents up to $3,450. Tenants moved in earlier this year, and Goldman said that of the 30 complexes, 28 have been rented.
It also has an indoor lounge with a terrace, 15 indoor parking spaces and a garage area for 30 bicycles.
“I think East Rogers Park is one of the most colorful communities in the city,” Goldman said in an emailed statement. “The immediate decrease in car dependency and car-centric lifestyles makes this a colorful and exciting community that fits the style of Chicago’s future. “
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