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What Kanye West has planned for his childhood home in Chicago
Musician purchased the modest home from a nonprofit he was once involved with
Contrary to his underrated 2004 single, not everything has to fall down for Kanye West. The Grammy-winning musician has secured permits this month to renovate his childhood home in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood.
West bought the dilapidated home in 2018 for $225,000 from a nonprofit that initially planned to renovate the home as an arts incubator, according to Crain’s.
The nonprofit purchased the home in 2016 out of foreclosure and was run by West’s collaborator Che Smith. In 2017, Smith said the house was in worse condition than he expected and announced that it would be demolished and replaced with a new building.
It’s unclear what West has planned for the 1,700-square-foot home, which has seen better days. The home was built around 1905 and sits on a roughly 7,000-square-foot lot, which is more than twice the size of the citywide average.
West’s stepfather signed the deed to the three-bedroom home over to his mother Donda West in 1985. They lived there while West’s mother taught English at Chicago State University.
West’s mother sold the home in 2003. A subsequent owner later lost the home in foreclosure. Smith said in 2017 that the house had been “abandoned for 10 years.”
West was originally on board with Smith’s venture, but the partners split in 2018.
West and his wife Kim Kardashian own properties in Los Angeles and Wyoming and lately seem to be spending most of their time in Wyoming.
The couple are regularly buying and selling properties and West has teased a move to Chicago before. [Crain’s Chicago Business] — Dennis Lynch