Theater Company Building Affordable Housing Arts Complex

An equity-focused theater company has pulled back the curtain on its plans for a residential and arts complex in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood.

The Black Ensemble Theater has proposed a development at 4427 North Clark Street that would include a performing arts education center, media and technology space, as well as 50 units of affordable housing for artists across two buildings that would be linked at the base, Urbanize Chicago reported. The project location is across from the company’s existing space at 4450 North Clark Street.

The idea for the project, set to cost between $50 million and $70 million and dubbed Free to Be Village, emerged almost 15 years ago. It’s advancing now with help from a $5 million donation from philanthropist Mackenzie Scott.

The theater company is planning to build the project in two phases, starting with the performing arts, media, and technology section before building the residential portion.

The first phase will rise four floors on the north side of the site, near the corner of North Clark Street and West Sunnyside Avenue. It will include space for the media center, performance hall and educational facility, as well as a literary cafe, archive room, film screening room, recording studio, editing station, dance studio and classrooms.

The residential phase will be six stories and consist of 50 one and two-bedroom apartments rented at affordable rates for artists. There will be three retail spaces totaling 13,000 square feet on the ground floor between the buildings.

The development will replace a one-story building where the Japanese Services Center used to be. The center is moving to West Ridge.

The theater company has submitted its plan to the city and needs a Planned Development designation from the Chicago Plan Commission, Committee on Zoning and city council to move forward. The project will break ground in 2024, according to the developer’s current timeline.

— Rachel Herzog