The $119 million residential phase will add 183 apartments to the site, with 90 percent of them designated as affordable.
The project has received financing from several sources, including a $27 million loan from the Chicago Housing Authority and $9.5 million in city multifamily program funds. Additional funding comes from $33.7 million in Low-Income Housing Tax Credit equity and $1.3 million in Illinois Affordable Housing Tax Credit equity.
The first phase of the project is expected to be completed in 2028, according to ABC7 Chicago. The community will be located at 4400-4458 S. Cicero Ave. in the Garfield Ridge neighborhood, close to dining and retail options and Chicago Midway International Airport. Downtown Chicago will be less than 10 miles away.
The development will feature two six-story mixed-use buildings with residences ranging from studios to three-bedroom units. Nearly half of the apartments will serve Chicago Housing Authority residents. They will also include a 14,000-square-foot early childhood education center and additional ground-floor retail space.
Mixed-income housing has become a key component of large-scale redevelopment projects across the US. Recent examples include the $600 million redevelopment of the former Burlington Center Mall in New Jersey and the $3 billion transformation of Willets Point in Queens, NY.
LeClaire Courts will eventually transform into a 32-acre site with up to 700 residential units, approximately 440,000 square feet of commercial space, and publicly accessible open areas. The overall project has been estimated at roughly $550 million. The site, bounded by Cicero Avenue, 45th Street, Lavergne Avenue, and the Stevenson Expressway, was formerly home to a public housing community that was completed in the 1950s and demolished in 2011, leaving the property vacant for roughly 15 years.
Chicago’s multifamily footprint is growing, with 69 projects under construction mid-way through October, according to Yardi Matrix data. These projects would encompass more than 12,000 units upon completion, with 34 belonging to the metro’s urban areas.
The Community Builders recently broke ground on the latest phase of another mixed-income redevelopment, Southbridge 1C, which is taking shape about 8 miles away from LeClaire Courts and is set to come online next year.
Future phases of the LeClaire Courts project are expected to add more mixed-income apartments, townhome-style residences, senior housing, retail, and health-care space.
Habitat and Cabrera Capital’s project is part of a larger trend in Chicago’s real estate market, with the 32-acre redevelopment of LeClaire Courts aiming to bring new life to a site that has been vacant for over a decade, and the development will comprise two six-story mixed-use buildings along Cicero Avenue between 44th and 45th streets.
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