Despite worries that the project might fall apart after the city’s failed Olympics bid, Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH) is moving forward with the first phase of Woodlawn Park, a new mixed-use, mixed-income community that will replace the old 504-unit Grove Parc Plaza development at 63rd Street and Cottage Grove Avenue in Woodlawn.
At the end of a four-year development period, Woodlawn Park will comprise 210 public housing units and 210 affordable and market-rate homes and 65,000 square feet of retail and commercial space.
Phase 1 calls for 67 market-rate and affordable homes.
POAH will replace Grove Parc’s buildings with “a variety of distinctive structures combining residential, commercial and recreational uses, making South Cottage Grove Avenue the center of a healthy new mixed-use, mixed-income community,” according to the organization’s website. POAH will also rehab approximately 300 existing apartments and shift some of Grove Parc’s old Section 8 subsidies to those units.
This morning, Ald. Willie B. Cochran, Rep. Bobby Rush, State Sens. Kwame Raoul and Mattie Hunter, State Rep. Ken Dunkin, and HUD Multifamily Hub Director Edward Hinsberger will mark the start of construction and honor the contributions of the late Bishop Arthur M. Brazier with a “wall-raising” ceremony on site.