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Alderman says project needs more affordable units, so developer bags them altogether
Sam Goldman had pledged to include six affordable units in the building planned at the former Heartland Cafe site, but now won’t include any
The developer of a rental project planned for the site of the former Heartland Cafe now plans a smaller building with no affordable units after pushback from new alderman Maria Hadden.
Sam Goldman had proposed a 70-foot-tall building with 60 units — six of them set aside as affordable — on the former site of the beloved cafe at 7000 North Glenwood Avenue.
But new Alderman Maria Hadden this week said she would not support a zoning change for the building because of community opposition centered in part around the amount of affordable housing in it, according to Block Club Chicago.
So Goldman told Block Club he will now go forward with a smaller building that doesn’t need a zoning change — and won’t include any affordable units because doing so would make it unprofitable.
Goldman said he can still construct a building up to 65 feet tall, but that will limit him to 30 to 40 units.
City ordinances would have required six affordable units in the bigger project, though they would have allowed Goldman to develop four of them off site, which he had chosen not to do. [Block Club] — John O’Brien