Committee on Housing and Real Estate

• the agenda is available here https://chicago.legistar.com/DepartmentDetail.aspx?ID=12386&GUID=7F2E07E3-4FED-4863-A084-265E9B04521F

Roll call. This meeting is reconvened from a July 14 meeting.

We’re straight into public comment. The only agenda item at this meeting is a sale of a portion of city-owned property in Bronzeville, which used to be the Michael Reese Hospital campus

The citizen currently speaking is talking about how she grew up going to Michael Reese hospital, but how her family has since been priced out of Bronzeville. She says its on the council members to …

ensure that people can “return home” to the neighborhood.

Next speaker is a rep from Unite Here Local 1, Chicago’s hospitality union. The rep says that hospitality jobs that come of the redevelopment (led by GRIT Chicago) should be high-quality

Now we’re into the land sale agreement –– here’s an outline of where it would go in. https://t.co/ZnRKPhzRTh

More overhead context. Speaker is discussing the community engagement process of the development, which they say has been aimed at ensuring that the surrounding community benefits from the development. https://t.co/LQYgfxOSnD

This project will be a total $3 billion investment in Bronzeville, as well as over 9,000 full-time jobs and over 9,000 construction jobs in the area.

Some outlined “community benefits” for the program promised by GRIT, the developer https://t.co/N7GC7frKkE

Here’s some more context on GRIT and the “Bronzeville Lakefront” project by @fspielman https://chicago.suntimes.com/city-hall/2021/7/19/22584087/michael-reese-hospital-site-redevelopment-bronzeville-lakefront-infrastructure-funding-approved

The base cost of the project is $96.9 million for buying land parcels, which City Council just approved $60 million for yesterday. Here’s more details on the timeline + purchasing plan: https://t.co/QcjVIrIH96

This project is apparently the “largest and only multi-billion project planned in a ‘minority community’ in Chicago,” according to the developer rep. Now 4th Ward Ald. Sophia King is speaking

King says that affordability is a key tenet of the development, per community requests

“This is truly a collaboration with a number of people” says King. The project has worked with community, development and planning and labor reps to ensure that this project is collaborative and beneficial all the way around.

King asks for her colleagues’ favorable vote, speaking highly of the community engagement process and potential benefit to Bronzeville. Now onto Ald. Anthony Beale

First question from Beale, who asks about the “flip” provision of the deal. Tim Jeffries, the developer rep (couldn’t see his full name before), says that this provision ensures that the land won’t simply be bought, sat on and sold again for profit.

Some discussion now about some zoning specifics –– Beale is asking what flexibility buyers/owners in the development would have to make renovations or alter the plan, to which developers say there is some flexibility built into the plan

Also worth noting that GRIT is comprised of multiple development groups. More here: https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dcd/supp_info/former-michael-reese-hospital-site.html

Some discussion now about one of the project goals of hitting 60% ‘minority’ contractors/participation in the development

Now a question from Ald. Daniel La Spata, who asked for more details about the affordable housing commitments of the project. Of a potential 5,000 units, the requirement will be that 20% of the units are affordable and on-site, King says

Also worth noting that this project includes 0 TIF funding, according to King

Ald. Osterman moves this to vote –– passes! So this will be on the agenda for tomorrow’s City Council meeting. Committee meeting adjourned!

That’s all for this round, folks. You can check out notes from this meeting via @CHIdocumenters #chidocumenters