Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot with the Department of Planning and Development announced three winning proposals as part of the City of Chicago’s INVEST South/West program. The three winning projects include a mixed-use residential complex anchored by a blues museum and cafe, a 56-unit affordable rental building with tenant gardens, and a sustainable food and culinary campus. Valued at more than $65 million, the projects were selected from 12 responses to Requests for Proposals (RFPs) issued in the fall of 2020 for three opportunity sites in Austin, Auburn Gresham and Englewood. The winning proposals, announced at Austin’s Kehrein Center for the Arts, include: 

Austin United Alliance (Austin/5200 W. Chicago Ave.) 

Planned for the former Laramie Bank building and approximately 20,000 square-feet of adjacent land, the proposed $37.5 million project will renovate the landmark structure with commercial uses that include a blues museum, bank branch, café, and business incubator. The adjacent land will be redeveloped with a mixed-income, multi-story rental building that includes a green roof, public plaza, social spaces, and outdoor art. The project is expected to generate up to 150 construction jobs and 22 full-time positions. 

Evergreen Imagine JV LLC (Auburn Gresham/838 W. 79th St.) 

Planned for 23,000 square-feet of vacant land near the intersection of Halsted and 79th streets, the approximately $19.4 million proposed project will create 56 units of affordable housing with ancillary ground floor retail uses and 35 parking spaces. Designed to complement the planned, Chicago Prize-winning “Healthy Hub” adaptive re-use project across the street, the complex will include private garden lots, a playground for residents, private amenities, and public open spaces. The project is expected to generate up to 100 construction jobs and three full-time positions. 

Englewood Connect (Englewood/800 block of West 63rd Parkway) 

Planned as the second phase of the Englewood Square shopping center, Englewood Connect is a $10.3 million, “eco-food hub” that will establish culinary-related uses that empower, employ and feed local residents. The project will adaptively reuse the landmark Green Street fire station as a commercial kitchen, establish a business incubator to train start-up businesses, create a community “living room” for local events, and repurpose vacant land with hoop houses that provide year-round farming operations. The project is expected to generate approximately 80 construction jobs and 45 permanent full-time positions.