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Portfolio: Washington Park townhomes

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Cities and neighborhoods, like businesses, rise or fall based on investment. Many parts of Chicago—downtown in particular—have boomed thanks to public and private investment in such projects as residential Dearborn Park, the restoration of Wacker Drive and, most recently, Millennium Park on Chicago's magnificent lakefront.

Assembled here is a portfolio of Chicago's next great investment opportunities, in NCP neighborhoods, including Washington Park.

Download the full portfolio in Acrobat PDF format (2.5 MB).

These projects are the most investment-ready of hundreds to emerge from a series of quality-of-life plans written by neighborhood residents under the leadership of local organizations. Some of the projects call for substantial residential and commercial redevelopment—project values run more than $245 million in the aggregate. Others are modest in dollar amounts, but heavy on civic spirit: ethnic wall murals by local artists, a retail feasibility study, expansion of a training program for auto mechanics.

Washington Park is promoting St. Edmund's Commons Townhomes, which would transform vacant lots to the sites of affordable rental townhouses and a base for local renewal efforts, as part of the New Communities Program's Community Investment Portfolio. The project would consist of 53 rental townhouses, mostly three-bedroom units, built on 10 vacant lots, bolstering the return of middle-income housing in this reviving South Side neighborhood. The Commons will contain four units for households earning less than 30 percent of the area median income, 17 units for those earning less than 50 percent and 25 for those below 60 percent. The remaining five units will be leased at market rates.

 

BENEFITS The housing development will reduce the number of vacant lots that plague Washington Park ; expand the income range of neighborhood residents; serve as a neighborhood model for mixed-income housing; and attract other developers, including those offering homes for sale.

SPONSORING ORGANIZATION St. Edmund's Redevelopment Corporation (SERC) works to renew the Washington Park community by developing quality housing and fostering revitalization opportunities for all people. SERC is working to redevelop former Chicago Housing Authority sites and vacant lots into successful mixed-income housing; create attractive gateways coming east from the Dan Ryan Expressway; revitalize commercial strips; increase parks and green space; and improve employment opportunities.

LOCATION
60th Street from Wabash to Indiana Avenues

INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY
$500,000 for gap financing

OVERALL PROJECT VALUE
$14.6 million

TIMELINE
2007 Construction
2008 Completion

PARTNERS
Ald. Arenda Troutman (20th Ward), Charter Mac, Chicago Department of Housing, Chicago Department of Planning and Development, Chicago Housing Authority, Developers Mortgage Corporation, Gilead Management Company, LISC/Chicago, Redevelopment Service Corporation, Skender Construction Company, University of  Chicago, Washington Park Neighborhood Association

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
Cecelia Hunt
773.752.8893
ceceliahunt@aol.com