46th Ward Math

The former Leland Hotel at 1207 W. Leland 

A short time ago, Alderwoman Clay's office announced the funding of a project we've known about for some time now, the renovation of the Leland Hotel property at Leland and Racine. 

After years of mismanagement, Heartland Alliance stepped away from the building, which was poorly maintained and home to rampant drug and alcohol abuse problems that often spilled onto the surrounding streets. After a foreclosure and a tour through housing court, Mercy Housing agreed to acquire and renovate the building to continue use as affordable housing. 

As part of the deal, Mercy gets $20,000,000 in city taxpayer (TIF) funds from the City.

You might recall that this same building received $2,000,000 in TIF in 2004 as part of a $15,000,000 renovation in 2005.

Now, after two decades of poor stewardship by Heartland, Mercy is set to receive 10 times the 2005 TIF amount.

Per Alderwoman Clay's announcement, the renovated Leland Hotel will offer 107 units to low income residents (down from the current count of 137). The cost?  A cool $59,200,000. 

That's $59 million for RENOVATIONS. NOT a new building.

To break that down, the renovation cost is:

Total cost ($59,200,000) / 107 units = $553,271 per unit.

Yes. You read that right. 

Adding all the numbers up, by the time this new "renovation" is complete in 2028, this building will have received a total of $74,200,000 in "renovations" in 20 years, or $693,458 per unit. 

Where is the money going?

After our eyes stopped watering, our team got to digging a little more.

Just for fun, we looked up the funding status of the Sarah's Circle building coming to Clarendon and Sunnyside. The estimated cost there was $34,000,000 for 54 units of housing. 

Using those estimates:

Total estimated cost ($34,000,000) / 54 units = $629,630 per unit. 

So the going rate for new construction is $629,630 per unit, and the twice rehabbed Leland is $693,458. Hmm...

While we understand the need for affordable housing, these costs are truly insane, particularly in the case of the Leland Hotel.  

By way of reference, Homes.com data says the median price of a one-bedroom condo in Chicago in 2025 was between $250,000 and $266,500. 

So, for the current $93,200,000 tied up in these two projects, the City could buy 351 condos at $266,000 per unit. That would house more than double the number of people these two projects will provide.

The issue of insane affordable housing costs has been explored in depth by others, so we don't have much more to add. The City needs affordable housing, no question. But since the days of Helen Shiller, it's been mantra that Uptown must be the home of all affordable housing, regardless of cost, and it appears to be more of the same under Ald. Shiller's hand-picked successor Angela Clay.  

Affordable housing is certainly anything but "affordable" to build (or renovate).