Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Proposed Maryville Redevelopment Moves Forward In City Council; Revenue to Help Rehab Fieldhouse and House Viaduct Homeless

Today on the floor of the City Council, a proposal was introduced about the plan to redevelop the 3.4 acres that make up the Maryville holdings at Clarendon & Montrose.

This move does not mean the proposed Maryville plan has been approved. It still needs the votes of the Finance Committee and the approval of the City Council as a whole.

But for the first time since former Ald. Shiller created the TIF at Clarendon and Montrose for the purpose of redeveloping Maryville, way back in 2010, the City Council has introduced a proposal that has the potential to make it happen.

In a press release from the City Council following today's monthly meeting:

"TIF Would Support New Mixed-Use Development in Uptown

A $125 million, mixed-income housing and retail complex in Uptown would move forward through a Tax increment Financing (TIF) proposal introduced today to City Council by Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Planned for the northwest corner of Montrose and Clarendon avenues, the 381-unit project by JDL Development and Harlem & Irving Cos. would include a 31,000-square foot grocery store and 278 indoor parking spaces. The project would also include and a 6,000-square foot retail building on the east side of Clarendon.

“This public investment will not only provide economic development in the form of affordable housing and new retail space, it will attract additional private investment that will bring even more economic opportunity to Uptown,” said Alderman James Cappleman. “This initiative will also create $4.6 million in funds to help Clarendon Park – all of which will be front-ended by the developer.”

Up to $15.8 million in TIF assistance would be allocated toward site preparation expenses. The site is currently occupied by buildings constructed in 1957 for Cuneo Hospital and later utilized as Columbus-Maryville Children’s Shelter. The buildings have been vacant since 2005.

Twenty units in the 26-story complex would be made available at affordable rents. The developers would also pay $5.7 million into the City’s Affordable Opportunity Fund. Half of the fund is used to support rental subsidies for very low-income residents and the other half supports the construction or rehabilitation of affordable housing citywide.

As part of the proposed redevelopment agreement, the developers would also provide $4.6 million to help renovate the nearby Clarendon Park field house.

The Montrose/Clarendon TIF district was established in 2010 to support the site’s redevelopment. All TIF funding for the project would be generated by future property taxes on the development site itself, which is currently tax exempt. To date, this TIF district has a zero balance. The assistance would be provided in annual installments following project completion and the fulfillment of all TIF requirements.

Zoning and financial assistance for the project were approved by the Chicago Plan Commission and the Community Development Commission in January 2016.

The project is expected to generate up to 60 permanent, full-time jobs and up to 675 construction jobs, as well as $3 million in annual property and sales taxes.

Additionally, some of the funding from the affordable housing payment will go to support the viaduct homelessness pilot announced by the Mayor earlier this month. To address chronic homelessness, the pilot will identify rental subsidies and aid opportunities for residents across the city that have experienced chronic homelessness, which is defined as being homeless continuously for at least 12 months or on at least 4 separate occasions in the last 3 years.

Rental subsidies will be provided by the Chicago Housing Authority, the Chicago Low-Income Housing Trust Fund, and some existing Permanent Support Housing providers to assist the chronically homeless, specifically those who regularly sleep outside. Placement of eligible residents will be led by the DFSS delegate agencies."

20 comments:

  1. Sounds like a win-win.

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  2. Sounds like a misuse of TIF funds, giving luxury developers $15.8 million so they can give back $10.3 million and keep $5.5 million. I highly doubt this is what Ald. Shiller had in mind.

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    1. You're absolutely right. Ald. Shiller had something very different in mind. She wanted a $40-$50 million TIF subsidy given to Sedgwick, her pet Maryville developers (who did the renderings that are part of the official TIF documents). Later, she found out that they were putting through renderings that didn't match their blueprints and withdrew her support of them. But by then, she'd already put the TIF in place. (Sad Trombone.)

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    2. Shiller ran this neighborhood like a mini fiefdom....she kept it impoverished and blighted. I'm thrilled she's gone!!!

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    3. Shiller used to get her supporters to picket outside new condo open houses to put fear into potential buyers (and keep them away from Uptown)...and she'd rig things to pack her supporters into community meetings like Wilson Yard's "planning charette" to block out people and proposals she didn't like...and she bussed in homeless from across the city to register and vote in the 46th Ward, making sure they supported HER and her policies. I remember writing years ago that if her supporters couldn't find room for people who disagreed with them to have a voice, they would find themselves not having a voice themselves when Shiller was gone. Lo and behold.

      The nice thing about all these new market rate rentals going in here is that the people going into them care more about value for their dollars, convenience, and access than they do about toeing a neo-socialist line dictated by the Shiller Politburo. Finally, the Shilleristas are more and more outnumbered here by people who don't share their views and who actually want city government to function for more than just a socially loud self-proclaimed underclass who would rather rage at the machine than do something to fix the machine. It's kind of nice to not hear so much of the nauseating, self-serving/self-important pontificating from the Shiller activists who lived high on the hog on the taxpayers' dime for so long...and even if a few of them keep shouting to be heard, they're gonna get hoarse after a while when they keep shouting, then they will be rightfully drowned out by the other voices of our changing neighborhood. And I say CONGRATULATIONS to them...they've earned the right to be silent. Karma is a wonderful thing!

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  4. this is never going to happen, I have been waiting 11 years, staring directly at this eyesore , that never seems to get approved. Then there is the large coalition of area residents, that want Uptown to remain a slum , I realize many other good thing are happening, but this one will never be a go...

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    1. This reminds me of all the people that kept saying that Target would never come.

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  5. Additionally, some of the funding from the affordable housing payment will go to support the viaduct homelessness
    ^^
    So they are not moving the homeless out of the area -- like putting them in the Cook Cty suburbs? Or somewhere out of Uptown? Nothing changes.

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  6. JDL owner and senior marketing officer gave total $10,000 to Emanuel. This luxury high rise simply does not meet the test for TIF subsidy. Let rich developers pay their own way. I have to. You have to. If you want YOUR ward's TIFs explained and exposed contact the TIF Illumination Project (http://www.tifreports.com) at info@civiclab.us.

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  7. Lianna, moving the homeless out of the area was never on the table. Many of them have doctors and receive services in Uptown, so putting them out of touch with those who help them would be counter-productive. Housing them is the solution. Because they won't be "the homeless" then. They'll be residents.

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    1. are you going to foot the bill? after a recent visit to the ER at Weiss there are many who "hang out" there in the evening and are considered regulars as told to me by the attending physician

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    2. However...the "advocates" [enablers] of the homeless almost gleefully boast that the viaducts will refill rapidly.

      This is a naked real estate play to stop what some see as "evil gentrification", and make Uptown the Socialist Paradise that Slim Coleman and the SDS radicals dreamed of a half century ago...With the viaduct tent cities being a contrived prop.

      http://theragblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/michael-james-back-to-uptown-1965-1966.html

      The patchouli has long worn away off that odious socialist experiment.

      Now, it just stinks of craven greed.



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  8. Please, Please move forward with this.

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  9. TL;DR: Don’t bite the hand that feeds you

    I've come to the realization that nothing will make Thayer and his jolly band of bandits happy. They complain money isn't being used for the common good and then complain when it is used for the common good (606 trail).

    The term gentrification is used and misused entirely too much. Every improvement, whether it be, fixing a pothole, repairing a crumbling building facade, or a new building altogether is misconstrued into some kind of fascist, capitalist conspiracy against the poor.

    There is a real disconnect between the demands for housing and full support and an understanding of where the money comes from to fund all this. This group seems to think money just magically appears in some wallets and not others. That's not how it works. The money comes from normal, middle class families who own their homes and pay the taxes to keep this city running. And while they’re happy to do it, they are tired of getting attacked at every turn for wanting a few nice things.

    I can only speak for myself but, at this point, I really don’t care about them. Let them live in their piss and sh*t under the bridge. I’ve already figured out how to completely avoid them.
    When they decide they want to place nice and take some personal responsibility for their situation instead of blaming everyone else – then I might start caring again and try to help them.

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    1. I completely agree with you.I'm tired of looking at this eyesore. I'm tired of paying taxes to folks that don't appreciate the support they receive from us and I'd like to see this project finally approved. In fact I thought it was but the city council keeps meeting on this. The notion that this is a pet project of Rahm's is laughable......this project has been stalled at every turn. If Rahm really wanted to push this through he would have.

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  10. I thought that TIF funds were supposed to be used to repair the blight that was identified in the TIF report that justified the TIF. I thought TIF's were prohibited from spending TIF funds on expenses, such as homeless services, that are part of the normal municipal budget.

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    1. This wouldn't come from TIF funds. The developers are putting $5.7 million upfront into the Low Income Housing Trust Fund (and $4.6 million towards renovations to the Clarendon Park Fieldhouse). It's the LIHTF contribution that would go towards the Housing-First initiative for the homeless. The developers would have to pay that amount anyway, no matter how the development is funded -- whether it all came from private-sector funding or whether a TIF is involved.

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  11. Just build it already!!! So tired of the slum enablers and their support of the viaduct campers--who by the way have ipads and grills and sell their drugs openly...

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    1. There's so much red tape involved in building in Chicago, even when only private money is involved. Add in a TIF that was cut from the initial payout of $50-60 million to the developer (back in 2010) to $15 million today, and several different development plans (this is NOTHING compared to the 1050-unit that was originally approved and planned by Sedgwick), and you've got a long drawn-out process. This is the closest it's ever been. The buyers want to buy and build, the sisters who own it want to sell, and it's got a couple more approvals to go. This is the closest it's been since the property went on the market in 2008. Big projects take time. It's the Chicago Way. Patience, grasshopper.

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