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Originally Posted by BrinChi
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There won’t be much to see yet. Affordable housing developers don’t typically spend a lot of money on design up front if they’re seeking LIHTC, grants, or other competitive funding. Typically they will do the bare minimum to get control of the project site and entitlements if needed... they will wait until after they are selected to really get the architect going, so none of these projects are at a point where we will see pretty renderings. The only exception is 1850 S Racine, and only because that project needed to secure entitlements in the form of an zoning change so they needed to present something concrete to the alderman and community.
Looking over the list of projects, I’m pretty happy. Virtually all of them are in downtown or downtown adjacent neighborhoods, and/or they are close to rail stations. I think the only non-transit-oriented site is Encuentro Square at the end of the 606, which is far from rail but understandable given the controversies over gentrification over there.
Finally some movement in three of the big CHA wastelands (Roosevelt Square, West Haven, Park Boulevard) which is good to see after these vast areas of land saw virtually no new construction despite the city’s massive building boom. And work is proceeding on the Ickes site as well.