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Development
Chicago

Former Obama boss lists development site by incoming presidential center

CBRE marketing property as potential lodging or multifamily development site

Allison Davis with 6402-6420 South Stony Island Avenue (The Davis Group, Google Maps)
Allison Davis with 6402-6420 South Stony Island Avenue (The Davis Group, Google Maps)

Former President Barack Obama’s first boss out of law school is selling a property he assembled down the street from the incoming presidential center on Chicago’s South Side.

CBRE is marketing the property at 6402-6420 South Stony Island Avenue in Woodlawn, southeast of the University of Chicago campus, according to an online listing. Cook County property records show the owner of the parcels is Chicago lawyer and real estate developer Allison Davis. Davis co-founded the law firm Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, which hired Obama when the future president was a recent graduate of Harvard Law School.

While the 32,248-square-foot property is zoned as a community shopping district, the CBRE listing notes that other permitted uses include multifamily and hotel development. The floor-to-area ratio would allow a building of up to 161,245 square feet, the listing shows, meaning well over 100 apartments of 1,000 square feet each could be built on the site. Tom Svoboda and John Jaeger of CBRE are marketing the property and didn’t return requests for comment.

Although the price of the property isn’t included in the listing, with that much room to build, a developer with plans for a project close to the maximum square footage allowed would likely be able to pay a price that nets a strong profit for Davis.

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He has worked to assemble the parcel since 2005, public records show. An LLC managed by Davis bought part of the property at 6412-6418 and 6420 Stony Island Avenue for $374,000 about 17 years ago. He acquired another, smaller part of the property, at 6402 South Stony Island Avenue, last year for $87,500 through an investment trust.

The $830 million Obama Presidential Center and Library project, which will include a museum, library, gardens and other gathering spaces, broke ground last year. Construction is expected to be completed by 2025. The development gained city approval in 2018, then underwent a three-year federal review.

The project has been billed as transformational for the South Side, particularly the South Shore neighborhood and the area around Jackson Park. Still, the development has sparked concerns about gentrification, and protestors showed up to Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s doorstep to demand protections against displacement ahead of the center’s opening. Local nonprofit Preservation of Affordable Housing is buying residential properties near the center in hopes of keeping rents in check for longtime residents.

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Jackson ParkObama Presidential CenterWoodlawn