James "Andy" Pierce and Robert Loerzel's The Uptown: Chicago's Endangered Movie Place, is hitting the big time, as the book is now available on Barnes and Noble Dot Com.
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| The Leland Apartments at Leland & Racine (Google) |
Two proposals were introduced at city council yesterday that would wipe the debt owed on two affordable buildings in Uptown clean - a total of nearly $4,000,000.
The Leland Apartments at 1207 W. Leland (at Racine) currently has a loan of around $2M according to a Chicago Reader article from November. The Chicago Department of Housing is petitioning to have that debt removed and have the building released from its regulatory agreement in order to eventually transfer the property to Mercy Housing.
Despite the potential removal of the mortgage hurdle, the building has been in dire need of renovation for years and needs to be brought in compliance with the city's "Life Safety Ordinance." Not sure that Mercy has plans to fix that, and how the building was never forced to comply, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The building was previously for sale late last year, but no affordable developers placed a bid, in large part due to the life safety issues. Failure to comply with the LSO has led to deadly consequences in the past.
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| The San Miguel Apartments at 907 W. Argyle (Google) |
The San Miguel Apartments (located at 907 W. Argyle) is also petitioning city council to have their debt of $1.75M forgiven. The request includes a change in the income restriction on the units. If the request is granted, and we are sure it will be, the building would transfer ownership from Heartland Alliance to Chicago Metro Housing Development Corporation.
While it's an objectively good thing that affordable housing options in Uptown may be preserved (and Uptown remains far and away the city leader in that category), we were hoping for a better plan for the Leland, where building and living conditions have been an issue for years. A simple transfer from Heartland to Mercy is only the first step - we're hoping that Mercy is prepared to take on the several millions required to bring the building up to code.
By law, the life safety issues should have been fixed years ago, so maybe the City Inspector General should look into this before we wipe away a $2 million mortgage?
*sounds best in Mario voice.
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If you like Ragadan, you're in for a treat.
Ragadan's owner and chef Daniel Sweis has been busy working late at night turning the old Miso Restaurant into "A Pizza Pie," his new foray into pizza making. (No website as of yet).
We first noticed some work ongoing at Miso in early April, and a small "A Pizza Pie" sign appeared shortly after. Some detective work led us to Ragadan, and the rest is, as they say, history.
We hadn't published since we had no official confirmation of the opening, but it appears they are soft open today (menu at the link). More information as we receive it, but it appears the official opening date is June 3.
A Pizza Pie is at 4449 N. Broadway.
Two new women-led businesses focusing on the youth of Uptown are celebrating double ribbon cuttings on Saturday, May 17!
The goal of My Art House studio is to create kind, strong and confident kids through dance, art and creative movement.
Another business is celebrating its new home in a newly refreshed retail space at 4755 N. Sheridan.
Kuumba Lynx, a hip-hop arts and education organization founded by Jaquanda Villegas, Leida Garcia-Mukwacha, and Jacinda Bullie, has called Uptown home since 1996. They are excited to be moving into their new home on Sheridan which will be known as the "Kuumba Lynx Arts & Healing Center."
Ribbon cutting will start on Saturday, May 17 at 2PM with an open house until 6PM.
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| 1101 W. Argyle (Compass Architecture) |
We told you about the plans for the 6 story development at 1101 W. Argyle (at Winthrop) back in November 2023.
As with most things city-related, it moved at a turtle's pace.
We are happy to report that a building permit was finally issued yesterday for a 5 story building (Eds.: possibly removing the 6th floor setback seen in this rendering?) with 16 new units.
There will still be a ground floor retail space and interior parking for 8 vehicles. The project is listed with an estimated cost of $5,000,000.
The parcel has been cleared for some time now so we expect construction to begin very soon.
We look forward to welcoming new residential and commercial neighbors to Argyle soon!
