Nearly a decade after their rooftop views were blocked by a massive video scoreboard in Wrigley Field’s right-field bleachers, owners of three small apartment buildings across the street from the Chicago Cubs’ historic ballpark want to knock them down for a larger residential development.

Among buildings facing the wrecking ball is one known for its “Eamus Catuli!” sign cheering on the team in Latin, a sign counting the years since the MLB team’s last championship, and another once known for its Torco advertising sign.

Owners of the North Side buildings are now proposing a five-story apartment building that would replace the three smaller buildings between 3627 and 3633 N. Sheffield Ave., according to plans on 44th Ward Alderman Bennett Lawson’s website.

The alderman said community feedback from a February meeting about the plan with the East Lakeview Neighbors group was mostly positive. Lawson said he is seeking more comments from residents before he decides whether to support a zoning change for the project.

“Anything this close to Wrigley Field gets an additional layer of scrutiny,” Lawson told CoStar News. “There’s certainly more interest than there would be with something just a few blocks away. We need to be very mindful with what we put forward and how it will affect the top paid tourist attraction in the state.”

The new plan, which would require a zoning change, is emerging nearly a decade after a legal battle that followed a decision by the Cubs’ owners, members of the Ricketts family, to install the new scoreboard that blocked views of the ballpark from the rooftops of the buildings that are now facing demolition.

That ballpark addition came after the Ricketts family bought most of the other three-flat buildings near the ballpark whose rooftops have views of baseball games, a unique feature of Wrigley Field that had become a lucrative business for operators selling tickets, food and drinks to attend games across the street.

Rooftop operators down the right-field line that hadn’t sold to the Cubs’ owners lost rooftop revenue when the videoboard was erected in 2015. Rooftop owners led by Edward McCarthy unsuccessfully tried to sue to halt construction of the videoboard.

Bleachers atop buildings owned by McCarthy and other investors have sat empty since the view was blocked, limiting the buildings’ revenue to rents from a few apartments.

While the larger building on the site would not revive ballpark views, it would significantly boost revenue from apartment rents.

“After having the thriving rooftops put out of business by the scoreboard, this proposal is a pivot to continue to stay relevant,” said Marc Anguiano, one of the buildings’ other owners and the leader of the proposed redevelopment.

Even before the highly publicized courtroom battle, the buildings at 3631 and 3633 N. Sheffield were well-known to fans frequenting Cubs games or watching them on television. The 3631 N. Sheffield building was associated with its longtime Torco advertising sign, and it has displayed ads for other products in recent years.

The 3633 N. Sheffield property is famous for its “Eamus Catuli!” sign. “Eamus Catuli!” roughly translates in Latin to “Let’s Go Cubs!”

For decades, the sign attached to the exterior of the Lakeview Baseball Club building has tracked the years since the team’s last championship. The countdown starts with the letters “AC” — short for “anno catuli,” which roughly translates to “in the year of the Cubs” — and it is followed by a series of numbers that denote the number of years since the last division title, the last National League pennant and the last World Series victory.

When the Cubs ended their 108-year World Series drought by beating the Cleveland Indians in the 2016 World Series, the sign was reset to all zeroes.

A limited liability company managed by McCarthy, who already had ownership stakes in the 3627 and 3633 N. Sheffield buildings, bought the one between it from previous owner Greg Ozog for just over $3.4 million in May 2023, according to Cook County property records.

Plans to demolish the buildings come after a wave of redevelopments in the area in recent years, including several projects by the Cubs’ owners.

The latest redevelopment proposal is for a single five-story building on the site now covered by three buildings, with a combined 29 apartments. The plan includes 11 parking spaces along an alley behind the building. The rooftop design includes two pickleball courts.

Anguiano declined to comment to CoStar News about the estimated cost or construction timeline before a final version of the plan is approved. Because of 80-plus game days and other events in and around Wrigley Field, demolition and construction likely would take longer than a typical project.

“We’ve talked with contractors who are seasoned building in an area like this,” Anguiano said. “It’s not just Cubs games you have to work around. There are concerts, the train tracks nearby and other impacts to neighbors.”

Initial renderings of the proposed building on the site included those two Latin words etched into the top of the structure. Newer versions on the 44th Ward website no longer include the “Eamus Catuli” wording.

Anguiano said the final design by DXU Architects is not expected to have the etched words, but he said the phrase “will be on the building somehow.”

“We need to work with the community to get the building right, and we’ll figure out later how to work in Eamus Catuli,” Anguiano said. “We want to do something that we’re proud of and that stays true to the area. We want to preserve as much of the history as we can.”