Bickerdike plans fully affordable housing development for Edgewater

A building in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood is on track to be transformed from public offices into affordable housing.

Chicago-based Bickerdike Redevelopment Corporation has proposed constructing an 11-story development with 90 units at 5853 North Broadway, where the city’s Department of Streets and Sanitation previously had an office, Urbanize Chicago reported. The property will rise next to the indoor Broadway Park and an Army National Guard recruitment office.

All of the units in the building, which is being designed by Landon Bone Baker Architects, will be marketed to households making up to 60 percent of the area median income. There will be 35 one-bedroom units, 40 two-bedrooms and 15 three-bedrooms. The one- and two-bedroom units will have one bathroom, while the three-bedrooms will have two.

The complex will have a third-floor terrace for residents as well as ground-floor meeting rooms and on-site management. Because of the site’s proximity to the Thorndale Red Line station, there will only be 19 parking spots for vehicles, but there will also be parking spaces for up to 90 bicycles.

Bickerdike said it plans to finance the project with Low-Income Housing Tax Credits from the city or the state housing department. The developer also plans to look into the possibility of getting money from tax increment finance or federal HOME funds.

Another large affordable housing investment took place in the area last month. About a mile south, Jeff Jaeger and Scott Alter’s Standard Communities paid $46 million for the two-building, 371-unit Bryn Mawr Belle Shore Apartments at 5550 North Kenmore Avenue and 1062 West Bryn Mawr Avenue last month.

That acquisition marked Standard’s second in the Chicago affordable housing market in recent months. In September, the firm put $43 million into buying the 148-unit Lake Park Crescent complex at 1061 East 41st Place in the Oakland neighborhood and agreed to put another $11 million into renovating the apartments.

Bickerdike will present the plans for the North Broadway development to the city’s Department of Housing by this summer, which would kick off the rezoning process. If the project is approved in a timely manner, construction could begin as early as summer 2024.

— Victoria Pruitt