A shorter building with larger family-oriented units at 801 Main St. seemed to be favored among about a dozen 4th Ward residents Tuesday night, kicking off the public engagement process to determine the future use of the dilapidated property.
Ald. Jonathan Nieuwsma (4th) said it’s his “expectation” that the city closes on the building for at most $735,000 sometime soon, and said he believes the city plans to tear it down “sooner rather than later,” to make way for a future development.
The council approved the purchase of the building using Chicago-Main TIF funds on June 9, placing the building, which formerly contained a laundromat, hair and nail salon, into the city’s Putting Assets to Work program.
Once the building is under city ownership, it will be demolished and potentially paired with the adjacent city-owned parking lot and included in a request for qualifications seeking developers willing to create new housing on the site that would meet city specifications.
The resolution approved by the council calls for the city to issue the RFQ and select a bidder within just seven months. Once a developer is selected and the zoning requests are approved, the city will sell the property to the developer.
Nieuwsma held the 4th Ward meeting Tuesday night to gain some insight into what residents in the neighborhood want to see, and while just about a dozen residents showed up to share thoughts, those who did seemed positive about the prospect of the site being transformed into something more than a crumbling building.
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The one-story retail building on the northwest corner of Main Street and Sherman Avenue is surrounded by buildings ranging from two- to five-stories in height.
All options appear to remain on the table, and Nieuwsma previously indicated he favored a mixed-use building with residential and retail on the site.
Some residents on Tuesday asked about the potential for larger units, including two and three-bedroom units and for-sale but permanently affordable units.
Nieuwsma said he can’t confirm how possible for-sale units would be, but said he thought the suggestion was “reasonable to think about.”
He said he wanted community input before the city sends out an RFQ, “so the community is already behind it.”
One group of residents suggested potential town homes to match the row of buildings directly across the street.
“We don’t want to overdevelop the area with too many multi-family buildings,” a resident said.
Others at the meeting, like Tapestry Station developer Charles Davidson, said the for-sale units would be too hard to deliver and instead suggested an easier-to-build three to four-story apartment building to “get this going” and avoid a years-long development process.
“Three floors is a little less expensive, it’s more achievable to deliver,” Davidson said. “You don’t have a really great piece of property here for a lot of density.”
Nieuwsma said he’ll likely send out a community survey to gain more insight from residents in the coming weeks, but called the future development an “investment into the community that will pay for itself eventually.”
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