By Jim Sterne
News Editor
The Chicago Department of Planning and Development has chosen Peter Holsten’s Holsten Real Estate Development Corp. and Hal Lichterman’s Kenard Corp. to develop the Chicago Transit Authority’s (CTA) Wilson Yard property in Uptown at Montrose Ave. just west of Broadway. The seven acre parcel could hold as many as 260 residential units and commercial space.
No plans were submitted and the selection was made due to Holsten and Lichterman’s track record. Their record includes North Town Village, 1401 N. Halsted St., which successfully mixes affordable housing and market rate homes. One third of that development was designated for former tenants of the Chicago Housing Authority.
Although no site plan has been formalized, community organizations have definite ideas about what they want. “Catholic Charities wants a midrise building for seniors built on Montrose Ave. We’ve talked to Truman College about using some of their land to build a multi level parking lot, and we have plans for a lot of commercial property on Broadway,” Holsten said. “It will be a wonderful shot in the arm for Uptown.”
“We’ve met with Peter [Holsten]. We think he has good experience with the project and a lot of experience with our community,” said Sheila Perkins, Project Jobs executive director.
Perkins is one of the leaders in the Organization of the Northeast (ONE), a United Way affiliate. ONE is a coalition of many community groups that have banded together to speak with one voice on important community issues. As reported in Inside last month, ONE has been an active participant in the ongoing battle to assure that proposals include low-income Uptown residents, who are struggling with escalating housing costs and high-end retail prices.
“My partner, Hal Lichterman, and I like the challenge of working with the community,” Holsten said. “It will take about a year to raise the money and get a plan. We’ll have more than one architect, selecting each for what they can do best, and we’ll have a landscape architect too.”
“This week Ald. Helen Shiller (46th) will convene the leadership group [of which ONE is a member] to decide what the next steps are in her and the city’s process and we will make sure the project is one that serves the entire community,” Perkins said. Much more has to be decided in the following months, including the price of the property.
“There will be a lot of meetings before this project is okayed by the community,” said Holsten. “We can’t please everyone, but we can compromise. We will be going back and forth many times but we must make sure we can fund it.”
Some community members see the Wilson Yard as a litmus test for area’s $50 million Tax Increment Financing district. How much of the TIF budget will be spent on developing Wilson Yard has not yet been determined.
“Ideally, we’d like to get TIF money to buy the land, and clean up some environmental problems caused by years of CTA maintenance, or we could use it for infrastructure like sewers. There are no sewers because they weren’t needed. Or we could use the money to write down the price of homes,” Holsten said.
Land prices being what they are in Chicago, developers face a hard task in building affordable housing. One way the city can provide this housing is when the city owns the land and can leverage the land value for low-income housing. For this reason, community groups have been very active in raising their voices for development that includes their interests. However, when the city is looking for every penny to balance their budget, a cut-rate deal for the land might not be possible.
Holsten said he will retain a lawyer to negotiate with the city.
Uptown is comprised of many ethnic groups and a large senior population, including a significant number of disabled citizens and veterans, many relying on public services. More than 90 percent of Uptown public school students live in poverty. At least a quarter of Uptown households live close to or below the poverty line. Another quarter earn between $25,000 and $50,000 annually, with the remaining 50 percent earning $50,000 to $75,000 a year.
City officials experienced the full weight of the community’s passion on the affordable housing issue in 1998 when they hosted an informal public “coffee”’ to discuss priorities for the site. Over 250 people arrived at what was meant to be a relatively simple morning meeting, which instead evolved into a five-hour brainstorming session. Community residents and business owners separated into groups to exchange ideas and present conclusions meant to be factored into future development proposals.
Baum Realty Group Inc. and Andrew Hochberg’s Next Realty LLC, who are part of the winning team, will manage the commercial aspects of the project.
Smithfield & Associates, a firm that has designed public housing for CHA and recently renovated State St. including the Art Institute’s Residence building at State and Randolph streets, lost out to Holsten’s group.
A third applicant, Pusateri-Sandberg Development, also well known for building affordable housing, withdrew from the contest. Larry Pusateri cited “internal partnership issues related to the retail end” of the project as the reason for the firm’s withdrawal. |
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