Efforts to revitalize the South Side community of Woodlawn are getting a boost in the form of 34 new homes and a $28 million mixed-use development, Preservation of Affordable Housing Chicago announced on Friday.
POAH is an affordable housing nonprofit with offices in Chicago and Boston. The organization currently owns and operates about 9,000 affordable homes in nine states and the District of Columbia.
POAH’s latest project is the “Woodlawn Station,” a four-story mixed used building containing 55 market-rate and affordable apartments and a total of 15,000 square feet of space. The development will be located at the corner of 63rd Street and Cottage Grove. In addition to the mixed-use building, the project includes development of two new buildings comprised of 15 mixed-income apartments on the 6400 block of South Maryland Avenue.
The Illinois Housing Development Authority contributed $1.1 million to the POAH development in the form of Low Income Housing Tax Credits. Additional funding came in the form of a $6 million Choice grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and $5 million from the U.S. City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development. POAH took out a private mortgage loan to help fund the development.
Two other developers are working to construct homes in the area around POAH’s Woodlawn Station development that will contribute to the Woodlawn revitalization efforts. KMW Communities LLC is building nine single-family homes, twelve townhouses and four condominiums on nearby lots located on Greenwood and Woodlawn avenues. KMW acquired the properties from the City of Chicago for their appraised value of $461,500. Geenline Development LLC plans to build nine single-family homes on Ellis Avenue and East 60th Street. The city sold the four lots that will house those new homes to Greenline for $393,500.