The money will help pay for some of the 1,335 new multifamily units that eventually will be developed in a 97.6-acre area bounded by 37th Street, Vincennes Avenue, Pershing Road and the Illinois Central Gulf railroad tracks, according to Jack Pettigrew, a principal with TIF consulting firm Trkla, Pettigrew, Allen & Payne, Inc.
Of the 887 residential units in the project area, 557 are vacant, according to the city's department of planning and development.
CHA development manager Debbie Schwartz says the agency will return to the community development commission before the end of the year with a redevelopment project. However, the site is part of a larger area that is getting 3,000 new housing units, notes 4th Ward Alderman Toni Preckwinkle, with 1,000 slated for CHA residents, 1,000 available at affordable sales prices or rents and 1,000 priced at market rates.
The largest item in the TIF budget is $18 million for property assembly. While the city does not have an acquisition list, that cost includes environmental remediation costs, Pettigrew says. If less is needed for environmental remediation, the money could be shifted to other areas, such as school construction.
"In subsequent phases, there is a plan for commercial development along 39th Street, and perhaps on Cottage (Grove Avenue)," Preckwinkle says. "But our first plan is entirely residential."
Paula Robinson, an executive director of a local redevelopment group, says she hopes tax increment financing can spur tourism, perhaps jump-starting a long discussed hotel plan for the area. There is no lakefront hotel between the Hyatt at McCormick Place and a Ramada Inn in Hyde Park.
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