Cornucopia Services buys complaint-riddled Washington Park resi building

The 230-unit St. Edmund’s Village complex had run afoul of city inspectors numerous times in recent years

6211 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago (Credit LowIncomeHousing and iStock)
6211 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago (Credit LowIncomeHousing and iStock)

Cornucopia Services bought a 230-unit Washington Park apartment complex whose residents staged a public protest earlier this year complaining about living conditions.

The California-based nonprofit paid $20.6 million for the building at 6211 South Michigan Avenue. The seller was St. Edmund’s Redevelopment Corporation, a Chicago nonprofit that owns and operates other affordable rental complexes on the South Side.

Cornucopia financed the deal with a number of loans, led by $36 million in financing from the Illinois Housing Development Authority. It also secured $5.5 million in financing from Citibank and $500,000 from California developer Preservation Partners, which targets “at-risk” HUD buildings.

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Representatives from Cornucopia did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The building was the site of a public protest earlier this year, with residents complaining about poor living conditions there, according to the Sun-Times.

City building records show St. Edmund’s Village had failed a number of inspections going back to 2005, most recently earlier this month. That visit let to several building code violations for structural problems and a faulty intercom.