Developers, city officials and former residents broke ground Tuesday on the first new housing at the old LeClaire Courts public housing site in Garfield Ridge, which has sat empty since 2011.
The first phase calls for two six-story mixed-use buildings on Cicero Avenue between 44th and 45th streets, with 183 studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, according to developers. About 90% of those apartments will be affordable to qualifying low- and moderate-income households.
Chicago Housing Authority CEO Keith Pettigrew said nearly half of the 183 apartments will go to CHA residents.
“It’s been a long time, folks,” Pettigrew said. “But today, we start making good on our commitment to bring housing back to this site.”
The CHA closed the original LeClaire Courts development in 2011, Mayor Brandon Johnson said. Pettigrew said CHA households and market-rate renters in the new buildings will share the same address, amenities and standard of quality.
“We cannot afford to leave valuable land and opportunities sitting on the sidelines,” Johnson said.
The city’s Department of Housing put $15 million into the first phase, Johnson and Housing Commissioner Lissette Castaneda said. That financing keeps the development affordable for 30 years, they said.
The first phase also includes a 14,000-square-foot early childhood center run by Chicago Commons. CEO Edgar Ramirez said it will serve more than 100 children from 6 weeks old to preschool, stay open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and create 30 to 40 living-wage jobs.
“The data told us that families in Garfield Ridge and Archer Heights have little to no access to center-based early childhood education,” Ramirez said.
The developers, Cabrera Capital Partners and The Habitat Co., plan a larger mixed-income community on the 32-acre site, bounded by Cicero Avenue, 45th Street, Lavergne Avenue and the Stevenson Expressway. Their invitation describes up to 700 homes, about 440,000 square feet of commercial space and public open space.
Cabrera Capital CEO Martin Cabrera put the full project at roughly $550 million, with about 80% of its homes affordable.
Habitat President Matt Fiascone said the length and cost of the development process are challenges that still need to be addressed. “Chicago, like many cities across the country, faces a significant housing shortage,” he said.
Ald. Michael Rodriguez (22nd) said the country has put housing on the other side of the tracks and forgotten about it.
“They’ve let it bleed to death, but today we turn a new page,” Rodriguez said. He said the site will have “183 units of affordable housing right behind us,” along with an early childhood center and business development.
U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García said his office secured $7.2 million in federal money for projects tied to the area. He listed, among others, $3 million for a medical center, $250,000 for the Chicago Park District, $2 million to repair the Cicero Avenue bridge and plan a new one, and $50,000 for Chicago Commons.
Bank of America is a financing partner on the first phase, said the program’s emcee, Manny Perez, a director with Cabrera Capital Partners.
The Illinois Housing Development Authority also helped finance it, Executive Director Kristen Faust said.
Community leader Joanne Williams, a U.S. Army disabled veteran who has lived in the LeClaire Courts community for 60 years, served on the CHA working group that picked Cabrera’s team as developer in 2019.
“After 27 years of waiting, it’s finally happening,” Williams said.
Williams said her main concern has been making sure former residents get the right to return.
The first phase of the LeClaire Courts redevelopment is expected to be finished in 2028.
