Holsten Lands Financing for Cabrini-Green Redevelopment

The final piece of a decades-long redevelopment of Chicago’s former Cabrini-Green public housing complex is moving forward.

Holsten Real Estate Development secured more than $45 million in construction financing and tax credit equity to fund Parkside 5, a 99-unit mixed-income development that will complete the broader Parkside at Old Town plan, Crain’s reported.

Financing includes a $23 million construction loan from JPMorgan and $22.6 million in federal and state affordable housing tax credits, arranged by Walker & Dunlop. The broader $67.2 million development also received $16.4 million in TIF funding from the city last year.

Cabrini-Green was a federally funded housing project that housed 15,000 people at its peak and became infamous for poverty and crime. It was demolished between 2000 and 2011.

The redevelopment will rise on a parcel bounded by Cleveland Avenue, Larrabee, Elm and Hobbie Streets and will include three three-story walk-up buildings and one eight-story mid-rise with townhomes at the base. Amenities will include a community room, fitness center, playground, dog park and on-site social services, some of which will be open to the surrounding community.

Parkside 5’s unit mix calls for 37 public housing units supported by a 20-year Section 8 contract, 28 additional affordable units financed with tax credits, and 34 market-rate units.

The site is one of several where Holsten and co-developer Cabrini Green LAC–Community Development Corporation have partnered with the Chicago Housing Authority to build replacement housing for residents displaced during the demolition of Cabrini-Green.

Critics argued for years that the demolition and redevelopment of Cabrini-Green would displace low-income families and gentrify the Near North Side. A lawsuit filed by a resident group led to a consent decree mandating the creation of 700 replacement public housing units on the site. Holsten began building there in 2004.

Parkside 5 is part of the long-running redevelopment effort but is a separate parcel from the one the city reissued an RFP for last month after its previous developer partners pulled out. That 7-acre site at 1450 North Larrabee remains in flux, with proposals due May 27.

— Judah Duke