Preservation Of Affordable Housing Plans West Side Complex

A Boston-based nonprofit is expanding its affordable housing efforts in Chicago with a $38 million development on the West Side.

Preservation of Affordable Housing plans to develop a three-story, 43-unit apartment building at 3155 West Fifth Avenue in the East Garfield Park neighborhood, the Chicago Business Journal reported. The developer also plans to construct a second residential building across the street that will function as a cooperative development.

“By having a co-op development, it will allow residents to have ownership in where they live,” Preservation of Affordable Housing’s Bill Eager told the Chicago Business Journal.

Most of the group’s recent activity in Chicago has been focused on trying to keep housing affordable for residents on the city’s South Side, where the incoming Obama Presidential Center has sparked fears of gentrification. The nonprofit has purchased two large apartment complexes in the area, the 318-unit Jackson Park Terrace at 6054 South Stony Island Avenue in partnership with New York-based Jonathan Rose Cos. for $25 million, and the 240-unit Island Terrace Apartments at 6430 South Stony Island Avenue for $29 million.

The West Side development will also include 4,500 square feet of ground-floor retail as well as a terrace, rooftop gardening boxes and exercise and community rooms. The residential component will include one- to three-bedroom units earmarked for renters who earn up to 80 percent of the area median income, which is $23,000 a year according to census data.

The nonprofit plans to begin construction in April 2023 and expects to complete the first phase in spring 2024. The group is financing the $38 million project with $20 million in city bonds, $6.5 million in tax increment financing and $1.7 million in Low Income Housing Tax Credits.

In 2019, the group acquired 682 apartment units on the city’s South and West sides and in suburban Elgin and Harvey.