Trending
City to buy largest vacant land in Pilsen, provide 280+ affordable housing units
City Council approved purchase of six-acre former industrial land
The City of Chicago will buy the largest vacant lot in Pilsen, a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood on the city’s lower West Side, to provide affordable housing units, a key part of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s initiatives to revitalize the city’s South and West sides.
The City Council on Wednesday approved the city’s $12 million purchase of a six-acre former industrial site on the 1600 and 1700 blocks of South Peoria Street to be turned into 280 units of affordable housing, green space, and retail spots.
“This is the first step in turning the single largest grouping of vacant land in Pilsen into a vibrant development that will provide much-needed affordable housing in a community that has lost more than a quarter of its Latino population,” said Marisa Novara, Chicago Department Of Housing Commissioner.
Consisting of 28 individual lots, the site is a nexus of community concerns about gentrification, displacement, and the potential impact of hundreds of new residential units being built. In 2015, New York developer Property Markets Group proposed a 500-unit, mixed-use building, but then-Alderman Danny Solis’ rezoning from residential to industrial blocked the project.
Property Markets Group sued the city in 2018 and tried to resurrect the project the following year, but it didn’t materialize because it didn’t commit to providing affordable housing units. Last year, the city negotiated a purchase agreement with Property Markets Group but needed the City Council’s approval to close the deal.
Buying the Pilsen site is part of Lightfoot’s $1 billion investment package for affordable housing, announced last year. Of the 24 developments to create or preserve 2,428 rental units, eight are within areas of the Invest South/West Initiative, Lightfoot’s three-year program to fund $750 million for economic development in the area.
Land acquisition costs will be paid for with funds from the Pilsen Industrial Corridor Tax Increment Financing district and the deal could be completed early this year.