Woodlawn Central South Side Advances With First Zoning Bid

A long-gestating South Side Chicago megadevelopment spearheaded by leadership of the Apostolic Church of God is moving closer to reality, with its first phase set to face city zoning and planning officials this month.

Developer J. Byron Brazier, son of longtime Apostolic Church pastor Byron Brazier, applied for a zoning change for the initial phase of Woodlawn Central, an 8-acre, church-controlled “cultural” complex planned along the 63rd Street corridor, Block Club Chicago reported. The application would amend a planned development designation originally approved for the site two decades ago.

The first phase targets an Apostolic Church parking lot bounded by 63rd and 64th streets, Dorchester Avenue and the Metra Electric tracks. Plans call for two buildings rising from a block-long podium, with a 14-story, roughly 160-foot-tall structure with 231 apartments units, a hotel, 23,000 square feet of retail and another 3,500 square feet of commercial space.

The base would house retail and residential and hotel lobbies on the ground floor, with parking decks on the second and third floors. The buildings above would hold the apartments and hotel rooms. The project would include 300 parking spaces for cars and 260 bicycle spots, a notable ratio for a transit-adjacent site near the 63rd Street Metra station.

As required under the city’s Affordable Requirements Ordinance, 20 percent of the units would be set aside for households earning up to 60 percent of area median income, which equates to $71,940 for a family of four. Brazier framed the project as an economic development play as much as a housing one, emphasizing jobs, workforce pipelines and income growth as tools to attract market-rate investment without displacement.

If introduced as planned at the Jan. 21 Chicago City Council meeting, the proposal would still need approval from the plan commission, the zoning committee and the full council.

Woodlawn Central was first unveiled in 2021 as a sweeping, multiyear vision for church-owned parcels nearby. At full buildout, the project is expected to include about 870 housing units across workforce, market-rate, luxury and senior categories, along with roughly 215,000 square feet of office and retail space. Later phases include a performance venue, a district-scale energy facility, a vertical greenhouse and renovations to the historic headhouse at the 63rd Street Metra Electric station.

The zoning push lands amid a broader development wave in Woodlawn tied to the Obama Presidential Center, slated to open in June. City Council last fall approved a separate 26-story hotel a few blocks east at 6402 South Stony Island Avenue, backed by Aquinnah Investment Trust, led by Allison Davis, a onetime boss of Barack Obama.

— Eric Weilbacher