We're glad to know our tax money is safe in Hinsdale! Nice profit-making, Peter. With much love, from the "agitators" who paid for that profit (and will be into 2023). xoxoFrom the Tribune:
Last night, at the 17th annual Chicago Neighborhood Development Awards, architects and others were recognized for their efforts to strengthen the city's communities.
"The Outstanding For-Profit Neighborhood Real Estate Project Award: Holsten Real Estate Development Corporation for Wilson Yard – The Wilson Yard development addresses three big issues facing the Uptown neighborhood: affordable housing, retail and transportation. And its backers managed to secure $40 million in financing to make it all happen in the fall of 2008 – at the height of the national economic crisis and credit crunch.
The project, 178 residential units with complementary retail components, including Target, has transformed a burned-out and long-vacant CTA facility – a community eyesore that cast a pall over an entire block – into a lively, mixed use complex that offers affordable housing for seniors and families as well as a Target store, an Aldi grocery store and other retail.
The developers overcame numerous challenges in seeing the project through. The configuration of the site itself: a single, massive building with structural elements that would be shared by all four entities going into it, meant that financing for all aspects of the project had to be secured simultaneously before construction could begin. A small but vocal segment of the local community agitated against the project, calling for market-rate housing. But this creative and dedicated suite of financiers, troubled by the rapid gentrification that had already pushed many lifetime residents out of the neighborhood, was undeterred."
The Wilson Yard development addresses three big issues facing the Uptown neighborhood: affordable housing, retail and transportation.
ReplyDeleteUm ...
Do they get a monetary award for this B$/let's all pat ourselves on the back awards night? Who can we write to to correct the record?
ReplyDeleteYo -- maybe they're referring to the parking lot?
ReplyDelete"transformed a burned-out and long-vacant CTA facility – a community eyesore that cast a pall over an entire block"
ReplyDeleteWell yes, but how much did good old Helen have to do with keeping it that way for years until she could find a way to bring what she wanted to that spot? Seems to me the Tax Payers were very clear about what they wanted and did not want all along. There was plenty of interest in development with that spot it just did not fit Helen's agenda. So while playing with the zoning in and around that location, which she would not communicate with anyone. Helen manipulated the situation to devise enough "support from the community" to match her own plan and then find a way to pay for it using, say it with me.... TAXPAYER MONEY!
But Hey Mr. Holsten congrats on all your hard work. I hope the tax payers were mentioned in your acceptance speech!
Compare/Contrast:
ReplyDeleteThe project [WY], ... has transformed a burned-out and long-vacant CTA facility – a community eyesore that cast a pall over an entire block – into a lively, mixed use complex
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City streets should not ape the numbing sameness of a shopping mall or suburban lifestyle center. Their richness resides in architecture’s unique ability to make time visible like layers of geologic strata.
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... meh
When you throw enough government cash at a development eventually someone will lend some cash.
ReplyDeleteOink oink oink.
"Please no more taxpayer cash. This is embarrassing. Ok, maybe just some menu money or perhaps a state grant or three".
I'm so confused. Is this an equivalent to Hollywood's 'Razzies Award'?
ReplyDeleteWhat I found funny was the line: "A small but vocal segment of the local community agitated against the project"
Though I've lived here for 20 years, truth be told, I was born and raised in Hinsdale (my relative was one of three who founded the village of Hinsdale in the 1870's)
Would my relative approve of Wilson Yard, and the way it came about?
Doubtful.
Meg....I heard the parking is free to the subsidized residents...I could be wrong..
ReplyDeleteMr Holsten....where is the promised retail!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What a load of [hooey].
ReplyDeleteGiving Holstein that award for WIlson Yard is like saluting a kidnapper for sending the victim back in a nice dress after holding part of the neighborhood hostage for years and getting millions of dollars in TIF ransom.
Equally appalling is that JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America both had judges on that committee, and that at different times both banks stood to underwrite loans financing the project. Who finally underwrote those loans after four rounds of amendments to the original project I can't even begin to untangle.
All the people on the panel who voted an award for this tax grab public financed boondoggle are all listed on the group's own web site.
http://www.lisc-cnda.org/display.aspx?pointer=3788
I get the impression UU is leery of posting phone numbers on their fine blog, but the president of that award committee is the well known Chris Kennedy, director of Merchandise Mart Properties and his number is very easily googled if you want to call his office and share your thoughts.
I have found numbers for almost all the judges who supported this award, and look forward to calling each of them this afternoon to ask what about this hijacking of valuable property was so deserving of an award.
At this point I just hope somebody has got all the aldermanic candidates on record with responses to whether Holstein and it's affiliates will ever be allowed back in the 46th ward to gorge at the TIF trough again.
larrynow - i was kidding. parking lot should not be considered "transportation." and they have done nothing to help the Wilson L stop,
ReplyDeleteI just drove by on my way to work and tried to identify anything that addresses transportation needs. Does a moved bus stop sign count perhaps?
ReplyDelete