Development news
Hermosa, Logan Square & West Town
Snipped from a City of Chicago press release regarding the sale of city-owned land:
The sale of four vacant, City-owned lots on scattered sites in Humboldt Park and West Town will lead to the construction of eight affordable apartments in four new buildings.
The homes will be built by Access Housing I LLC at 1746 N. Francisco Ave, 1917 N. Keystone Ave, 1941 N. Karlov Ave and 2415 N. Harding Ave. Collectively appraised at $353,000, the lots will be sold for $1 each.
Each two-story building will contain two apartments with two-bedrooms and 1.5 baths. The ground floor units will be accessible for people with disabilities. All of the units will be rented to households earning up to 60 percent of area median income.
The proposed $2.8 million project will be funded by the Illinois Housing Development Authority.
Logan Square
Developer Property Markets Group has proposed a transit-oriented mixed-use building at 2211 N Milwaukee in Logan Square that takes advantage of a year-old ordinance giving developers the right to reduce resdiential parking requirements by up to 50%. If given the choice, developer Noah Gottlieb said he might even build less parking than that.
North Center
Curbed Chicago featured our analysis of suspected teardowns in Chicago and picked out a few gems that have likely met the Dumpster. We put this news under North Center because it was one of the top community areas for having suspected teardowns. Others included Lincoln Park, Lakeview, and West Town.
River North
This probably isn't news to anyone, but River North is a hotspot for tech company headquarters. The news, though, is that the Merchandise Mart landlord – New York-based Vornado Realty Trust – dropped "Merchandise" from the name "in a bid to attract more technology tenants", according to the Chicago Tribune.
United Center
The Chicago Bulls basketball team has opened their new training facility across from the United Center stadium on Madison Street. The building is closed to the public but 27th Ward Alderman Walter Burnett said he expects that the players, coaches, and other staff will start patronizing nearby businesses and send a signal that it's okay to move back to the Near West Side.
Woodlawn
1. The Chicago city council approved last Wednesday a plan to develop the historic Strand Hotel at 6315 S Cottage Grove Avenue into a mixed-income apartment building. Eighty-two percent of the units (53 of 65) will be affordable.
A renovation building permit was issued on September 3 to convert the building with an estimated cost of $16 million. A city press release valued the project at $23 million, part of which is paid for by the Woodlawn TIF district.
2. The redevelopment of the Grove Parc Plaza in West Woodlawn, just south of the Midway Plaisance, continues. The Boston-based Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH) took control over of the 504-unit subsidized housing complex and worked with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to redevelop the site as the mixed-use, mixed-income "Woodlawn Park" development.
The story and process was featured in a recent HUD magazine article. A building permit was issued last week to renovate an existing 5-story apartment building and add three retail spaces. Two other, major building permits for Woodlawn Park were issued in the last four months, including for a new squash court and a 5-story senior housing building.
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