Over at the Sun-Times David Roeder is reporting that a new proposal for the vacant, 5-story Rosenwald Apartments building at 47th and Michigan will go before the City Council today.
The plan contemplates 235 rental apartments, 138 of which would be set aside for seniors, and 75,000 square feet of retail space. Financing for the $109 million redevelopment would include $5 million in Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds, $25 million in TIF funds and $45 million in historic renovation tax credits.
Roeder opines that:
If they can pull it off, it will have enormous impact. But the Rosenwald is huge, neglected and defies easy answers. The project also appears to have a thin margin for financial error.
I visited the Grand Boulevard neighborhood several months ago to hear a group of local residents express their concerns about an earlier development proposal for the Rosenwald. They asked me for my opinion as to what should be done with the building and I gave it to them, off camera, in one word: teardown.