Life Coming Back to Bronzeville Corner

Senior development manager Yorell Groves tells GlobeSt.com that while no leases have been signed, Liberty Life Center is pursuing a quality clothing store, restaurant, jeweler, bakery and small coffee shop among the retailers to fill the former headquarters of the Liberty Life Insurance Co., which later became Supreme Life Insurance Co. The redevelopment also will include 3,000 sf for the Black Metropolis Convention and Tourism Council, he adds, which hopes to draw additional tourists from the nearby destinations spots such as McCormick Place to the Bronzeville neighborhood.

While Bronzeville is among the city neighborhoods seeing a redevelopment boom, Liberty Life Center, LLC was the only respondent to the city's department of planning and development request for proposals. Groves notes the October 2001 RFP required "significant amount of experience doing historic rehabs," and Eastlake has been involved in three major projects in the Bronzeville neighborhood alone.

"That's an easy way to knock out some qualified developers," Groves notes.

He also concedes the city's expressed goal of redevelopment that restored the two-story office building's façade, as well as those of the five townhouses, also could have killed interest in developers eyeing the southeast corner of 35th Street and King Drive for a larger project. Current zoning on the development site would allow for nearly 70,000 sf.

Instead, Liberty Life Center, LLC will get a shell to work with. The 81-year-old Supreme Life building, vacant for 10 years, was last renovated in 1950. The townhouses were built in the late 19th century.

"The building's in pretty good shape," Groves tells GlobeSt.com. "But it's a full gut rehab. The systems are shot, the roof is shot."

After acquiring the buildings, the city will turn them over to Liberty Life Center, LLC for $1 under an ordinance recommended for approval by the city council's committee on housing and real estate. In addition, city officials say, the project can receive $1 million in Empowerment Zone funding.