Chicago announced a $38.4 million redevelopment project to turn a vacant 21-acre site along Roosevelt Road in North Lawndale into a sprawling industrial and innovation center as part of the city’s Invest South/West initiative.
Selected from among eight proposals, the joint project by 548 Development and Related Midwest seeks to redevelop city-owned land along Roosevelt Road and Kostner Avenue into a 302,000-square-foot industrial complex, with two adjacent buildings for job training and other community-related uses.
The city is selling the land — one of the largest vacant industrial sites on the West Side — to the developers for $1 as part of the project, which still requires approval from the City Council. Located in the Roosevelt/Cicero industrial corridor, just south of the Eisenhower Expressway, the site was once home to a Copenhagen snuff plant and other manufacturers.
Uncovered as an illegal dumping ground for hazardous construction waste during the federal Operation Silver Shovel political corruption investigation during the 1990s, the site was previously suggested as a home for the Obama Presidential Center, which instead went to Jackson Park.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot praised the redevelopment of the long-fallow site, which is expected to bring 700 permanent and temporary jobs and a logistics-fueled economic engine to the West Side.
“It’s hard to believe that the site … that once hurt North Lawndale so greatly and profoundly, will now revolutionize this corner of our West Side and positively change the lives of residents here for the better,” she said at a news conference Monday.
The project includes two industrial buildings with 62 docking spaces, looking to leverage the location for potential freight and logistics applications. To improve access for trucks off the Eisenhower Expressway, the Chicago Department of Transportation plans to increase roadway clearance under the nearby rail viaduct on Kostner Avenue. The $8.4 million road project is partially funded through a $4.8 million grant from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, better known as the CARES Act.
The broader redevelopment will also include an adjoining community park, while a portion of an active railroad line bisecting the site may be adapted to provide an adjacent recreational trail. The city plans to use tax increment financing to help pay for environmental remediation and other site preparation costs.
From inclusive economic opportunity to environmentally-conscious development and operation, the industrial site’s future will look a lot different from its past, said A.J. Patton, managing partner and CEO of Black-owned 548 Development.
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“We care a lot about the community,” Patton said. “We care a lot about sustainability. And we care a lot about that the coalition that participates in these deals looks like the community that we’re investing in.”
This is the 11th project announced in the Invest South/West initiative, a three-year program to invest $750 million in developments across 10 disadvantaged neighborhoods on the South and West sides.
In March 2021, Lightfoot announced $67 million in investment proposals for the first three developments to be built in the Austin, Auburn Gresham and Englewood neighborhoods. In August, the city announced four mixed-use projects and three peripheral developments valued at $200 million for South Chicago, North Lawndale, Bronzeville and New City.
The city announced three mixed-use projects in November totaling $126 million for Humboldt Park and South Shore.
Several of the projects are expected to break ground later this year, the city said.